We are almost two-thirds of the way through the 2025 season and it’s past time to start appreciating the accomplishments of returning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.

Racing fans have lamented in recent few decades the loss of the sport’s shining stars too early to retirement. But this year, legitimate standouts like 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone, 2023 Classic winner White Abarrio, and Mike Repole’s potent older-male tandem of Fierceness and Mindframe returned to competition and provided much needed helium to horse racing.

I’m not saying horse racing is without problems, but it’s refreshing to have returning stars to pair with the up-and-comers from the Kentucky Derby and Oaks trail, and none shines brighter than Thorpedo Anna.

She has the type of record that you see in history books and think, “Wow, I wish I got to see that horse race!”

Thorpedo Anna and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. after the Fleur de Lis. (Eclipse Sportswire)

The 4-year-old Fast Anna filly has 11 wins and two seconds from 14 starts and boasts six Grade 1 victories. She has yet to win a race against males, but she did run a heck of a race in last year’s DraftKings Travers Stakes when second by a head to Fierceness. In January, she became only the seventh female since the advent of the Eclipse Awards to take home Horse of the Year honors.

There is always a concern, especially with fillies, that they might tail off a bit as they get older or may lose the zest for competition. I’m not going to lie and say that didn’t cross my mind after Thorpedo Anna ran the worst race of her career when fading to last of seven in the Grade 1 Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes May 2 at Churchill Downs after encountering some traffic trouble early, but she was back on her game for a three-length win June 28 in the Fasig-Tipton Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill.

Thorpedo Anna returns to Saratoga for her first start at the Spa since last year’s Travers, a race that produced her career-best Beyer Speed Figure and tied for her top Equibase Speed Figure, so it’s exciting to see her face four other Grade 1 winners Saturday in the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes. It has the makings of a terrific horse race, something that is always welcome in this sport.

The first five females to win Horse of the Year are all in the Racing Hall of Fame: All Along (1983), Lady’s Secret (1986), Azeri (2002), Rachel Alexandra (2009), and Zenyatta (2010). Havre de Grace, the 2011 Horse of the Year, was a finalist this year but was not elected.

Thorpedo Anna could have a better follow-up season than any of the previous six female Horses of the Year.

All Along in 1984 was winless in four starts, all Group or Grade 1s. She finished a distant third to Sagace in Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and ran second to Lashkari in Breeders’ Cup Turf. Even though she didn’t win, she ran well against elite competition. In her follow-up season, Lady’s Secret won a pair of allowance races from five starts and finished second in Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Handicap. Lady’s Secret had 40 starts entering the year and was unable to recapture the magic at age 5.

Azeri probably had the strongest follow-up campaign of any of the previous six female Horses of the Year. She ripped off four straight wins, including Grade 1s in the Apple Blossom, Milady, and Vanity Handicaps, before placing second (from third) via disqualification in a Grade 2 race in her final start of 2003. She also won a pair of Grade 1 races in 2004 and was named champion older female every year from 2002 to 2004.

Rachel Alexandra recorded a pair of wins and three seconds in five starts in 2010, but she was not the dominant force she was the previous year. She won the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill and ungraded Lady’s Secret Stakes at Monmouth. Her seconds included a runner-up finish to Zardana in New Orleans Ladies Stakes in her season debut and to Persistently in the Ogden Phipps in her final career start.

Zenyatta was retired after her 2010 Horse of the Year campaign at age 6 and did not race in 2011, while Havre de Grace won the 2012 New Orleans Ladies Stakes in her lone start of the year before she was retired with ankle injury.

Thorpedo Anna has a pair of Grade 2 wins in addition to a top-level victory in the Apple Blossom Handicap. She can add a second Grade 1 in 2025 with a victory over a quality group Saturday in the Personal Ensign Stakes, but it will be a challenge.

Provided she stays healthy and continues to perform up to expectations, I expect Thorpedo Anna probably would start once more in a major race in the Longines Distaff division before the Breeders’ Cup, and in my opinion the Hall of Fame very likely is in her future. She might have done enough to secure the needed votes already.