The filly Thorpedo Anna breezed in company on Saturday morning on the main track at Saratoga Race Course in her final serious workout for next Saturday’s Travers, and as they came off the grandstand turn, a third horse was galloping along the rail. Jockey Julien Leparoux had to angle workmate Elko County away from the rail a little bit to get around the horse, but Elko County and Thorpedo Anna went on their merry way, as she covered five furlongs on schedule in 59.81 seconds.
So the trip didn’t go exactly as planned, but the result did. Trainer Kenny McPeek expressed no concern about the glitch, and was happy with what was a routine final prep with regular exercise rider Danny Ramsey heading into Thorpedo Anna’s shot facing males in the $1.25 million Travers.
“He didn’t let her out. You don’t want to really knock her out in a work like that. It was a nice maintenance, what I call ‘twelves,’” McPeek said, referring to metronomic 12-second splits for each furlong.
“Just grind it out and leave the rest up to her on the gallop-out, and she galloped out way in front, so it was good.” McPeek chose Elko County as Thorpedo Anna’s workmate in part because he was due for a solid breeze, and got one, against a three-time Grade I winner who is 4-for-4 this year. “It’s tricky.
It depends on race dates for the other horses and timing,” he said. “We had some others that we probably could’ve connected her with, but they already had workmates scheduled, too. .