It was cause for celebration at Oaklawn Park March 30 as Thorpedo Anna flashed home an easy four-length winner in the $750,000 Fantasy Stakes (G2), clinching a spot in the May 3 Kentucky Oaks (G1).
The talented daughter of Fast Anna had shown a lot of promise as a 2-year-old, winning her first two starts by a combined 17 1/2 lengths. However, in the Nov. 25 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs—her third start in one month—she finished second while beaten 5 1/4 lengths. Given time off for a freshening, Thorpedo Anna returned with a vengeance in the Fantasy to become a leading favorite to wear the lilies.
In the Oaklawn winners’ circle, trainer Kenny McPeek was quick to give breeder Judy Hicks, who owns the horse in partnership with Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, and Magdalena Racing, much of the credit.
“(Hicks has) given us a lot to work with,” McPeek said. “This filly is plain fast and certainly showed a lot of class today.”
About 600 miles away, Hicks watched the race at her Brookstown Farm just outside of Versailles, Ky. Hicks makes sure to remain hands-on with her horses. Although it broke her heart not being at Oaklawn Saturday, she felt she had a responsibility to her clients’ foaling mares.
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Hicks purchased Brookstown Farm with her husband, R.W., in 1983 and named it after her grandmother’s Brookstown Mill in Old Salem, N.C. The farm currently is about 460 acres and home to about 100 horses. Hicks owns about 10 broodmares and boards the rest.
“Woodford County is known for good ground,” Hicks said.
Hicks majored in biology and animal science at California Polytechnic State University before eventually entering vet school at Texas A&M. Instead of doing a PhD, Hicks interned at Forest Retreat Farm in Kentucky and, upon deciding veterinary medicine was not for her, accepted a position as farm manager at Dr. D. Applegate’s Mint Springs Farms. It was there that she met her husband before the two purchased their property.
Judy Hicks at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton February Kentucky Mixed Sales
Hicks bought her first horse, Phoenix Sunshine, as a weanling from a client who had not paid his bills.
“She finally went to the courthouse steps and I bought her for $10,” Hicks said.
Phoenix Sunshine would go on to win four stakes and earn $226,889 from 1986-91 before joining Hicks’ broodmare band at the end of her career.
Phoenix Sunshine would produce Shining Victory, a daughter by Victory Gallop. Shining Victory would produce grade 3 winner Victress and Majestic Presence, the dam of 2024 Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Newgate and two-time stakes placed 3-year-old filly Denim and Pearls .
“If you look at the pedigree page,” Hicks said, “everything was foaled and raised at Brookstown.”
Also foaled and raised at Brookstown was Thorpedo Anna, who Hicks knew from an early age was going to be a star.
“I just had a feeling that she had it,” Hicks said. “Her attitude, she was tougher than nails. She would kick you in a second or bite you. You like that feistiness.”
Hicks liked the filly so much that when she sold to McPeek for $40,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale, Hicks introduced herself to McPeek and asked to stay in on the horse.
“I went up to him and said ‘Kenny, thank you for buying my horse. I’d like to stay in on part of her if that’s possible. In fact, I’d like to keep 45%,'” Hicks remembered. “He laughed and said ‘I can work you into a partnership deal.’
“And then he said, ‘Judy, this filly is going to make me a million dollars.'”
Hicks and McPeek’s intuition was correct as the filly has already earned just over half of that goal in only four starts.
Hicks says she picks her stallions based on the best body type, a strategy that led her to the late Three Chimneys stallion Fast Anna. Thorpedo Anna is a member of his last crop.
“I just loved his overall appearance,” Hicks said of Fast Anna, “his balance, his shoulder, and his walk.”
Thorpedo Anna’s dam is Sataves , an unraced Uncle Mo mare out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Pacific Sky. Her first foal was by Tourist , a mare named Charlee O that Hicks raced. She won twice, including a wire-to-wire maiden-breaking score at Belmont Park, and retired earlier this year with over $100,000 in earnings.
After Thorpedo Anna, Hicks bred Sataves to Cloud Computing and sold the colt, McAfee, for $40,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Hicks has kept part of him as she did with Thorpedo Anna. This year, Sataves had a Known Agenda filly that is already showing the same feistiness that Thorpedo Anna had despite being only two weeks old.
The success Hicks has experienced would not be accomplished without a great team, something Hicks considers herself lucky to have surrounding her.
“They really love the farm,” Hicks said of her staff. “I have a night watchman that spoils all the babies and loves the farm and wants to put up a tent so she can live here. My farm manager has been with me for 20 years.
“My husband takes great care of the pastures, we fertilize and reseed the fields every year whether they need it or not. I’m loving what I do. I need to retire, but I will never retire. What would I do if I retired?”
It is thanks to the hard-working team at Brookstown Farm that Thorpedo Anna now finds herself on the doorstep of taking home one of America’s most treasured races: the Kentucky Oaks.
Hicks has experienced the Oaks before, having competed in 2011 with Ashland Stakes (G1) winner Lilacs and Lace . An injury setback leading up to the Oaks cost the filly her best chance and she finished 12th.
Hicks said she will absolutely be in attendance for Thorpedo Anna’s run on the First Friday in May.
“I don’t own a hat,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to go out and buy one.”
