Pedigree Profile: Thorpedo Anna

The Kentucky Oaks winner is a perfect example of the kind of clever breeding you can find at a bargain price

Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna cost just $40,000 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale, but her pedigree is an example of just about everything I love to see in a mating, and is a great lesson in breeding or buying a brilliant racehorse on a budget.

Thorpedo Anna is by the late stallion Fast Anna, a colt who flashed plenty of brilliance in his career. He was the winner of an allowance at Gulfstream Park in gate-to-wire fashion by 13 lengths second time out, then set the pace in the G1 King’s Bishop in his third start, just barely losing to The Big Beast in a thrilling stretch duel. He was again second in the Gallant Bob Stakes in his next start, then set the pace to be a respectable 5th, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Off for nearly seven months, he returned to win Gulstream’s Sawgrass Handicap, which was not a black type stakes, then picked up two more third-place efforts in black type stakes at Delaware and Saratoga, setting the pace in both before fading. He was unable to get to the lead in Keeneland’s Phoenix Stakes in his final career start, finishing tenth that day. Known throughout his career for his brilliant speed, a majority interest was acquired by Three Chimneys, where he retired to stud in 2016 for a $7,500 fee.

Fast Anna was himself a regally bred son of Medaglia d’Oro out of the champion two-year-old filly Dreaming of Anna, a daughter of Rahy out of the stakes winner Justenuffheart, who also produced the graded stakes winners Justenuffhumor and Lewis Michael. Justenuffheart was a daughter of Kitten’s First, making her a half sister to G1 winners Precious Kitten and Kitten’s Joy, who was an outstanding sire himself. At the time of his death in February of 2021 due to complications from laminitis, Fast Anna was the sire of four stakes winners, but that total is now up to 14 stakes winners in 192 starters, a very impressive 7.3%.

More distantly, Fast Anna’s branch of Lowe family 2d goes back to the reine-de-course Danger Ahead, the third dam of the great Spectacular Bid. Her fourth dam, Fly By Night, was also the fourth dam of the great broodmare Almahmoud, the dam of both Cosmah and Natalma. Natalma was the dam of the breed-shaping stallion Northern Dancer among her seven black type earning foals, and she is also the tail-female ancestor of stallions such as Danehill, Machiavellian, and Proud Citizen, among others. Cosmah, meanwhile, produced the great stallion Halo. Via her daughter Queen Sucree, she was the granddam of Kentucky Derby winner Cannonade, whose half-sister Stellar Odyssey was the second dam Aldebaran Light, who produced G1 winners Balmont and Eskendereya, the sire of G1 winners Mitole and Mor Spirit. Aldebaran Light also produced the unraced Stormy Atlantic mare Pacific Sky - like Eskendereya, by a son of Storm Cat. Pacific Sky never produced a stakes horse, though she did get two useful runners by Flower Alley who each earned over $100,000 in claiming races.

Pacific Sky was also the dam of an unraced filly by Uncle Mo, named Sataves, whose first foal has earned $103,586 in 18 career starts, racing mostly in allowance and optional claiming company. Her second foal was a daughter of Fast Anna who sold for $40,000 as a yearling and brought her career earnings to $1,430,663 this weekend with a victory in the Kentucky Oaks - Thorpedo Anna.

So clearly, while there was no black type under Thorpedo Anna’s first two dams, she traced to an elite female family - importantly, one that she shared with her sire. This means that Fast Anna and Sataves shared their mitochondrial haplotype. Since Sataves was guaranteed to pass on that same mitochondrial DNA to her foal, and Fast Anna, as a talented runner, likely possessed nuclear DNA that complemented his own mitochondrial DNA, this breeding pattern increases the chances of the foal receiving nuclear DNA from the sire that works with the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA she receives from her dam. If you want to read more about this breeding theory, you can check out my pedigree primer here. It’s also worth mentioning that multiple G1 winner and excellent value sire Divisidero is bred on a very similar pattern, as he is a son of Kitten’s Joy and also traces tail-female to Cosmah.

Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna is the product of some very clever linebreeding to elite families such as 2d, 5h, 8c, and 21a

However, this linebreeding to the tail-female line isn’t the only exciting pedigree pattern present in Thorpedo Anna’s pedigree, as another elite Lowe family gets duplicated as well by crossing a stallion from the Sadler’s Wells sire line with a mare carrying Stormy Atlantic, as those two stallions share their fourth dam, the great mare Rough Shod. This Sadler’s Wells/Stormy Atlantic cross is also present in six other stakes winners, with 6.2% of the 113 starters on the cross being stakes winners. Of those seven total stakes winners, five are by Medaglia d’Oro or his sons - 18.5% of 27 starters. Though the sample size is still small, Medaglia d’Oro has done well with Uncle Mo mares, with four stakes winners in just 19 starters on the cross (21.1%).

Speaking of Uncle Mo, Sataves is linebred to her sire’s family 8c, as Uncle Mo shares that female family with Storm Cat, the sire of Stormy Atlantic. The Uncle Mo/Storm Cat nick is a popular one that has gotten the likes of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist as well as two-time G1 winner Adare Manor. The cross of Uncle Mo over mares carrying any source of Storm Cat has gotten 48 stakes winners in 716 starters (6.7%), with five total G1 winners on the cross (.7%).

Mares bred on this Uncle Mo/Storm Cat cross have been exceptionally productive, with ten stakes winners in 50 starters (20%), including Arkansas Derby winner Muth and Haskell winner Geaux Rocket Ride (6% G1 winners). I expect that Thorpedo Anna will not be the last G1 winner out of a mare linebred to family 8c via Uncle Mo and Storm Cat.

Uncle Mo also brings in family 21a via his sire, Indian Charlie. This family is represented in Fast Anna’s pedigree by his second damsire Broad Brush. Though Thorpedo Anna is the only stakes winner in five starters by a stallion carrying Broad Brush and out of a mare carrying Uncle Mo, the reverse has produced G1 winner A Mo Reay and stakes winner Tio Magico in 28 starters (7.1%).

Overall, the decision to send Sataves to Fast Anna was a masterful one by Thorpedo Anna’s breeder Judy Hicks, and the decision to purchase this filly for $40,000 an equally astute choice by Kenny McPeek. Thorpedo Anna is just another example of how thoughtful mating choices can help bring out the best of the genetic potential in a family, and how you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a well-bred racehorse who can go on to win the top races in the country.