Thorpedo Anna, the reigning US Horse of the Year, sneaked up a place in the world rankings with a consummate performance in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on Saturday [April 12].
Sent off a 1-5 chance against five overmatched rivals, the four-year-old made short work of her opposition as she cruised to a 4¼-length victory under Brian Hernandez in the G1 event to take her career record to ten wins from 12 starts – plus two seconds.
Although the $1.25m contest didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know already about Thorpedo Anna, this was her sixth G1 success and she moves up to #4 (from #5, +53pt) on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings.
Trainer Kenny McPeek (#93 from #111, +28pt) is now eyeing the G1 La Troienne on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs on May 2. “We've kind of plotted this all along,” McPeek said, adding that a much-publicised visit to England was a longshot with races like the Ogden Phipps and Stephen Foster on the agenda at home.
“I wish every horse trainer in America, and even jockey, could have a horse like her to be around,” added the trainer.
“I worked all my career to try to find those kind of horses and she really does make our job easy. She’s not complicated. She loves to eat. She loves to train. It’s a real pleasure to be around her. She’s great.”
Incidentally, McPeek is targeting the $200,000 Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn on May 3 for the next appearance of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan. He hasn’t won since his Churchill Downs triumph 12 months ago.
Another US-trained horse making a mark in the rankings is top miler Carl Spackler, who returns to our charts at #13 after a comfortable victory on his return to action in the G1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland.
However, the best performance of the week came in Australia, where Via Sistina (stays at #3, +75pt) capped a remarkable 2024-25 season with her seventh G1 success in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the feature event of Day 2 of The Championships at Randwick.
The Fastnet Rock mare mare was equalling the single-season record of top-level victories in a single season established by the great Winx.
Via Sistina ran out a decisive winner as she beat UK-trained stalwart Dubai Honour (#18 from #23, +30pt) by a length and three-quarters to claim the A$5m ($3.18m/£2.4m) event.
“She just keeps turning up every week,” said trainer Chris Waller (stays at #6, +40pt). “I’d like to have a few more like her. And we have, we've got a great team, but she just shows the difference between a good horse and a champion.”
Waller and jockey James McDonald (stays at #1, ≠39pt) wasted no time completing a G1 double at Randwick Fangirl (#14 from #35, +113pt) capturing the very next race, the Queen of the Turf.
Three-year-old filly Treasurethe Moment (#10 from #12, +18pt) also enters the world top ten following her odds-on success in the G1 Australian Oaks. In stretching her unbeaten run to eight, she also became the first filly in 19 years to complete the Victoria/Australian Oaks double.
While we’re on the subject of Classic fillies, Embroidery (#30 from #297, +362pt) leaps up the rankings after winning the Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas), the nation’s first Classic of the year at Hanshin on Sunday [April 13].
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
Romantic Warrior hangs on to #1 spot despite Dubai defeat
Rankings latest: James McDonald claims world #1 spot from Ryan Moore
A big performance in the Big Cap: Locked leaves rivals standing to enter world Top 20
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.