Can Thorpedo Anna Win the 2024 Travers Stakes?

[Music] hi everyone Matthew Des sanis here with nirra bets here with a very special guest on a very special video talking about a very special Philly and that is torpedo Anna and whether or not she can beat the boys on Saturday in the Travers Stakes but before we get to that make sure to press this like button and subscribe to The Nair bets YouTube channel to get all of our race previews full card analyses Travers day spotlights light racing live streams handicapping embedding tutorials and so much more but joining me today is my colleague at iet's Kaylee Shapiro Kaylee thank you so much for coming on and talking to me about torpedo Anna today thank you so much for having me on absolutely and there's two reasons I wanted to have Kaylee on one she's a really sharp handicapper you've been around the sport most of your life you've been around horses most of your life in particular the sales the pedigree side of things you really are invested in that space and I had a lot of fun learning from you a couple weeks ago when we were over at the faic Tipton sale that was a lot of fun but you also happen to be thorpedo Anna's number one fan all absolutely am thorpedo Anna's number one fan um I think that there's rarely horses that I get super emotional being around or that make me feel you know a lot of things being around and around her I I get very much choked up and she's a very special horse she is she exudes that sort of Personality we saw her we'll talk a little bit more about it later but we saw her on Sunday in The Paddock and she definitely was exuding a certain Charisma a certain energy that I mean I was in The Paddock for fierceness is training he didn't exude that energy I'll tell you that much so she definitely has the it Factor whatever that is and you've been on her for a while you've really liked her going back to that Kentucky Oaks I'm curious first Saturday what is it that you really see that impresses you about her that you think it really gives her a big chance on Saturday in the Trappers I truly believe that we have not seen the best of this horse yet yeah um every single time that she runs or she works she's not fully being asked ever if anything she's given her head a little bit in her works you know to see you know what they're working with but everything that she does is very much effortless and she's just an exceptional Philly that we have not seen the best of yet absolutely no and that's one thing we'll show a couple of race replays on this and you'll see most of her wins are pretty much so wrapped up Brian's just keeping her Focus pretty much so down the stretch making sure she stays to task but she's a really impressive one and obviously the decision to run her against the boys is one that trainer Kenny mCP has made but he's not a stranger to this decision he made this decision a few years ago with another Philly Swiss skydiver he ran her against the boys in the Bluegrass as well as in the pness she won that pness you know you brought up a point that speaks to MC peak's confidence in her clearly that he wouldn't put her in the spot if he didn't think she was ready right he could have just sent her to the Alabama and she would have won easily and we would have all been guessing who's going to run second and that would have been the race but instead he's opted to send her to the Travers against all the boys and you know he's very proud of this Philly that he has he's not going to put her in any place where she's going to embarrass herself or she's not going to run a good Race So at the very least she's gonna she's gonna run a good race and you know I truly believe that she has every capability to win and one of the things that I'm so interested about MC PE and you can said shed some light on this because of your background is you know MC peek has this uncanny ability to find horses that are kind of overlooked by other people at the sales they don't have the flashy pedigree maybe it doesn't jump off the page it's not sier Leone who's $2.3 million sired by Gunrunner you know this is a daughter of fast Anna she went for $40,000 at sale you go back to Swiss skydiver $35,000 at sale these were not expensive horses and yet they ended up dominating a sport I mean how does MC PE continually find these types of diamonds the rough well mCP has an exceptional eye when he's at these sales um he's able to find Diamonds in the Rough and horses whose pedigree doesn't jump immediately off the page he's looking for very nice individuals and he found that with torpedo Anna you know she was $4,000 Philly as a yearling at Keeneland and you know when he looked at her he definitely thought of her as a very nice individual with a lot of potential because that's what you're buying as a yearling you're buying the potential and what they can develop into and he's done a great job with that in the past and you know he did it again with her clearly she's already done her job and she's already accomplished so yeah she's already paid for that $440,000 and way more than that but one of the things you've talked to me about before is that he also tends to look at kind of maybe potentially productive broodmares and and kind of a dams side py that like you said doesn't jump off the page but her dam is you know sired by Uncle Mo you know so there's something there and I want to say the the other Offspring was a winner at 2 years old so there's something there that may get overlooked by other people of course Uncle MO is an exceptional brood marire and she has a great pedigree and you know those are the things that you know m is gonna look for when trying to make a little bit of money rather than oh this is a multiple graded Stakes winning Dam sort of a thing so listen it's always fun Kenny is a big personality he has a lot of confidence in this Philly he called her a grizzly bear before the Oaks and she backed him up and she backed them up every step of the way but let's talk about some of those races that she's been in and one of the things anybody who's watched any videos of mine know that one of the things I harp on is horses that overcome obstacles I always like a horse that overcomes an obstacle in other words I don't really like fierceness but I like horses that do have that ability and she's shown that the last couple of times out because even though she's one easy haven't been the easiest trips necessarily right and so in the Coaching Club America Oaks is kind of a prime example so in the start of this race you can see that she loses so so much ground cuz she hops out of the gate you know not too much ground where it was detrimental but a decent amount where she had to make a bit of a run up to get a good spot to be competitive in the race still but there was no doubt that she was able to do that she wasn't even encouraged to do so she just kind of knew her job and she ran up and she saved her ground and yeah that was an impressive effort and it was one that you I'll show another angle of it from the side you see to kayle's point just how many lengths she's kind of giving up there three four lengths at the beginning and then to your point Brian's not asking her for anything I mean he's just along for the ride and she just knows I got to go I got to get up to the spot and what I think is particularly impressive is a lot of times when horses miss the break a little bit there tends to be an overexertion and okay we got to get up there we gotta get up there we gotta get our spot and then you turn for home and you flatten out a little bit well there was no flattening out with her turning for home she pulled away from this field pretty easily right and you can see the way that she's coming down the stretch here and her ears are pricked and you know he's not really asking still all that much of course he is but not nearly as much as the horses that are behind her look at candied and how hard she's being asked and I was the favorite going into the Alabama and she can't even get close to thorpedo Anna who's being asked a fraction of the amount that the other horses are and yeah absolutely I mean and Brian's really just keeping her straight showing her the crop not really you know pressing her too much for that and still able to win very easily now the race before that could Coaching Club though she had some obstacles that we didn't even know about until after the race which was she lost a shoe during the race talk a little bit about like what does that do to a horse I mean that can really throw your balance up I mean I imagine trying to run outside with one sneaker on one sneaker off it's probably not going to be very successful so it was really something that she overcame that for a lot of horses of course it could really affect them losing a shoe they're gonna be a little bit off balance but for a horse like her doesn't really doesn't matter at all absolutely and here she is in that race without the shoe and she's turned it for home and just dusts right by just FYI and just pulls away from this field she made just FYI look like she's not even a contender and just FYI is a freakish freakishly good Philly as well so that that tells me a lot right there and the horse coming up on the far outside that you'll see with the kind of white Blaze who comes up for third is power squeeze and that's of course the horse that we just saw Saturday win the grade one Alabama right and look how easy torpedo and is wrapped up basically here has her beat by seven lengths most notably her size compared to the rest of the Phillies she's way bigger than them and everything comes much easier to her than it does to the rest it really does and this gets to something you and I saw her in The Paddock on Sunday and she just looks bigger she just looks more physically developed than the Phillies we saw the day before in the Alabama and it was pretty noticeable right uh that she is not just a big Philly but you know a big a big horse yeah she's a big horse I mean she's gonna I you think she's gonna fit in with the boys on Saturday I definitely do and it's going to be really interesting to see her in the padic next to everyone I think she'll fit right in and I don't think that she'll be intimidated in that padic with the boys no there will be no intimidation she's got a personality uh to herself and one of the races that actually brought her onto the national scene obviously was that victory in the Kentucky Oaks as well and that was a front running ride that day in the slop and Brian Hernandez Jr got her out there got her up front and again turning for home it's kind of the same song where yes she's being asked because of course a horse is gonna get asked but I mean really compared to the rest of the field she's exerting a fraction of the energy and she's doing it in the slop and that's what makes it even more impressive um here you see everyone else this is a big group of very talented Phillies the best you know the best Phillies in the country running up against her and here you know she's still clearly the best and there's no doubt even at the beginning of the race there was no doubt that she was gonna win so right no she was and she just took off and one of the things that's so interesting about her is when Brian does go to the crop he goes to the crop exactly once in other words she learns she knows what she needs to do she's a racehorse and she likes to run uh and he gives her one tap and see you later she's off and she always finishes with gas left in the tank and that's the big thing especially when you're talking about getting a mile and a quarter um you compare her to to some Colts that you know don't really finish with gas left in the T she always does and that's what makes her different no that's 100% true I think you in particularly you think of a horse like fierceness who I think a lot of us feel it might be distance compromised at a mile and a quarter and usually even a mile and an eight is kind of like okay that's about all we got left like we don't really have much more I mean the Jim Dandy was a prime example yes he beat Sierra Leon Sierra Leone went right by him in the gallop out though I mean he didn't really want much more than a mile at an eight that day so she's one yeah plenty of gas in the tank and hasn't really been overexerted to this point now listen you we touched on it a little bit she was there in the padic on Sunday there was such Buzz around her being in the padic on Sunday talk to me a little bit about just what you saw in the paddock from her her personality and kind of how ready she is for this race on Saturday well I've been going out and seeing her early in the morning since you know kind of the beginning of when those Works have been posted publicly you can you know you know when and where she's going to work and every single time I see her she looks better and better and notably when we saw her in the padic on Sunday she just looked ready to go she wanted to race that day you know they even went to touch the blanket that was on her and pulled it back a little bit they weren't taking it off and she immediately just buffed up and was ready to go and you know she looks and she works every single camera that's in that padic and she looks at you right in the eye and you know she is a big personality and that she has a great mind and she has a lot of heart and she just wants to run she does and I will say I got a bunch of pictures of her and I thought hey I got a lot of great pictures of her and then I realized everybody got a lot of great pictures of her because she looks square at every single person she passes by and has a camera up and so she's got a yeah ears were pricked most I mean she was ready to run on Saturday and and you know and that last work was quite impressive as well the 59 and four she was under a tight hold for work and we just talked earlier today to our colleague Darwin Vizcaya who does a lot of stuff for naira espanol and he was saying he was in The Paddock he saw everybody I said who is the most impressive he said thorpedo Anna I mean she really does look the part in this race but let's talk a little bit about this race because there's some interesting Dynamics here she drew the number one hole now it's a relatively short field only eight it's not like drawing the number one hole in the Kentucky Derby where you're going to get a whole slew of horses crashing down on you on the inside but what is your thoughts on that number one post position and kind of what it does to her chances on Saturday I'm not concerned about it you know I wasn't jumping up and down with excitement when she drew the one the one hole but I I really don't think that it's gonna make a big difference for her honestly and honestly I think it's going to set her up to be able to save up a bit of ground which is g to be the smartest thing for her to do here and clearly Brian Hernandez completely capable of giving her that ride yeah um she has no immediate early speed to her right she is Sierra Leon that is gonna break last yeah and then all the speed is really on the outside you have fierceness and door knock and fierceness at the end and those horses are kind of going to be in comp in my opinion in competition with themselves in the beginning to fight for the lead while she's just going to find a nice comfortable spot particularly on the rail sitting in third or fourth yeah and she's going be able to rate and she's going to be able to make a run up at the end when the others are tiring out you know that's genuinely how I see the race playing out I I think that's the way you got to draw it up because I don't think she wants to necessarily try to gun it to the front I don't think that's the the right move especially with a horse like dorick right there I agree with you I'd let dorick and ferson wear each other out a little bit up front sit that pocket trip save all the ground we saw Brian Hernandez Jr do it with Mystic Dan he saved every inch of ground in that Kentucky Derby and that made the difference because it was that much of a difference between and Si Leone but you know he he traveled a lot less distance because of it so she's going to get that inside rail trip you mentioned sier Leon course that is going to be a little bit off slow that's going to give Brian that room just she's not gonna feel pressured she's not going to suddenly feel somebody else coming in on or anything like that she's gonna be able to hold that inside rail position in that race and let's talk a little bit more about the General Dynamics of the race because there's gonna be a fair amount of speed in this race and so when you look at this race in general I know you're all in on torpedo Anna but who are the other horses or two that you're really keyed in on that you think could run a big race here well the race really sets up for Sierra Leon at the end of the day if you're looking at the pace Dynamics like it's pretty clear that this can be his race and but the big difference between her and Sierra Leon is that he's gonna come from the back of the pack and he's GNA make a big run up at the end and he's gonna either just miss or he's gonna or he's gonna get there and that's going to be the way it's going to go but if she's able to make a little move at the top of the stretch and get up front she has all the tools to be able to outrun them and win that's a great point about sier Leon having to he he's a dynamic Runner and you would point out you always love to point out on the videos he runs with his head down like he puts his head down he's like all right I gotta go and he's Dynamic but you're right he's kind of gotten a reputation the last couple of times out of like H coming up just short it's like are you gonna get there this time and there's not a lot of margin for error with CER Leon like either gets there or he doesn't and not he's not like fierceness who can sometimes win by a dozen or lose by a dozen but you know with sier Leon it's it really is Hit or Miss I know another horse you're high on is dorick he's a stubborn horse he's one I I like a lot from a personality standpoint and I think reminds me a lot of torpedo Anna yeah definitely Doro is just a hard fighting horse um I think what really impressed me with him was his trip in the remson where Sierra Leon kind of got in front of him and he was like note and fought right back and got there and that when you think about you know Sierra Leon is a phenomenal hor every stride of his is like two of anothers and when you think that dorno was able to fight back and and win that race that that's what makes him super impressive and obviously he's coming off of Belmont and hasn and he's in great condition he's a hard trying horse he's another one with a lot of heart and a great mind and you know he does scare me he's a fast horse too and you know that's yeah we'll have to see the way the track plays on Saturday as well is playing to front end speed Etc you know that's something to keep in mind during the Belmont Stakes racing Festival up here front and speed tended to do really well but yeah Dorn's an interesting horse because I remember you know his fat of Youth was not particularly impressive and I remember somebody pointed out to me that he just he had his ears flicking around all over the place and it was like he was just like looking for someone to like run against like he kind of likes to be challenged and you know that's what he gets when sier Leon tries to go by when mind frame has tried to go by the last couple of times you know fierceness is going to apply that pressure to him horses like batten down and unmatched with wi are probably going to press a little bit as well then torpedo Anna so he's going to have to face a Cavalcade of horses coming at him he's a hard one to bet against he's your morning line favorite at 5-2 uh I don't know if I love that price on a horse in this deep of a field uh but certainly we'll see now there was a long shot that you were a little bit interested in as well which was the other Chad Brown yeah and I'm not sure if he'll be much of a long shot on race day I guess we'll see but definitely when I'm playing these Exotics I'm going to put torpedo and of course I'm I'm going to well I'm going to better to win of course but underneath her in a little box I would put Sierra Leon dorok and unmatch wisdom he's another horse that's just GNA keep improving and yeah he's an interesting horse because Chad really was high on him before he ever even ran in the klin and he's one that you know probably hasn't run his best race yet could still continue to improve right he's going to be a really tough one to get around and it but the thing about both him bat and down it's going to be the trip can they win from off the pace because I don't think they're beating dorick and Fon s of that first turn and so now you're gonna have to do something you haven't necessarily done before and then oh by the way it's just a mile and a quarter as well um just no big deal uh so listen Kaylee I appreciate you coming on and chatting with me about this and I wanted to ask you a question in in kind of closing of what would it mean for this sport or what does it what does it even mean for her to be entered in this race and then what would it mean for her to be the first Philly to potentially win this race since 1915 well it's going to be historic if she wins clearly it's been a while since the Philly Phil has W the Travers but I think if anyone can do it it's her and like we talked about she's only going to be set up for success that's obviously what Kenny mCP is setting her up for is success and I have nothing but hope in her that she can really make history and beat these boys on Saturday um but for the sport it it's a very exciting thing just the buildup of it and the fact that she's even a participant in the race is an accomplishment clearly of her and Kenny mCP and the excitement around it is just phenomenal and we're watching history in front of our eyes even if even if she doesn't win which you know I think she will but even if she doesn't we're gonna see a horse race and and that's the most exciting part about it it's going to be a race there's there are two great races on the Saturday card in my opinion there is this race and there's the H all and Jerkins the H and jerkin is just a stupidly good race uh you and I nerded out over that when the when the fields were drawn but uh this is going to be a horse race you have so many good horses so many ascending horses in this race I got one final question for you are you wearing pink on Saturday oh of course I'm wearing all pink on Saturday I'm G have a tough time spot you because I there's gonna be a lot of people wearing pink on Saturday but listen Kaye thank you so much for joining me on this video and look forward to having you on some more Net's videos in the future me too thank you so much for having me absolutely and thank you so much for watching along with this can torpedo an a win video and make sure to press that like And subscribe button for Kaye Shapiro my name is Matthew to Sis wishing you a great and prosperous day at the races friends and reminding you that it's now post time