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Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24, 2024. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24, 2024. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24, 2024. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, left, and family and friends cheer on Thorpedo Anna as she finishes second in the Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 24, 2024. McPeek is one of 16 finalists for induction to the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2025.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Eight racehorses, seven trainers and one jockey account for the 16 finalists that will comprise the National Museum of Racing’s 2025 Hall of Fame ballot, as announced by the hall of fame on Thursday.
The finalists are racehorses Blind Luck, Game On Dude, Groupie Doll, Havre de Grace, Kona Gold, Lady Eli, Rags to Riches and Smarty Jones; trainers Christophe Clement, Kiaran McLaughlin, Kenny McPeek, Graham Motion, Doug O’Neill, John Sadler and John Shirreffs; and jockey Jorge Chavez.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs. The ceremony is open to the public and free to attend.
McPeek, Groupie Doll and Smarty Jones are each a finalist for the first time.
McPeek made the finalist list after a 2024 season in which he saddled Mystik Dan to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Thorpedo Anna to victory in the Kentucky Oaks, becoming the first trainer to sweep those races in the same year since Ben Jones in 1952.
Thorpedo Anna went on to win Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly.
As of Thursday, McPeek, 62 has won 2,095 races with purse earnings of more than $133 million (18th all-time) in a career that began in 1985.
The Derby win gave McPeek a career sweep of the Triple Crown races, including the Belmont Stakes in 2002 with 70-1 long shot Sarava and the 2020 Preakness with champion filly Swiss Skydiver.
Thorpedo Anna, who won the Grade I Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga Race Course and ran against males in the Travers, finishing a close second to Fierceness, concluded her 2024 campaign by giving McPeek his first Breeders’ Cup win, in the Distaff.
Smarty Jones lost just once in his nine-race career, but it was a second to Birdstone in the Belmont Stakes that prevented Smarty Jones from winning the 2004 Triple Crown.
Groupie Doll won Eclipse Awards as champion female sprinter twice, in 2012 and 2013.
She won nine graded stakes, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint twice.
Hall of Fame voters may select as many candidates as they believe are worthy of induction to the Hall of Fame. All candidates that receive 50% plus one vote (majority approval) from the voting panel will be elected to the Hall of Fame.
All the finalists were required to receive a minimum of nine votes from the 14-member Nominating Committee to qualify for the ballot.
The results of the voting on the contemporary candidates will be announced on Thursday, April 24.
That announcement will also include this year’s selections by the Museum’s Historic Review, Steeplechase, and Pillars of the Turf committees.
To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, trainers must be licensed for 25 years, while jockeys must be licensed for 20 years. Thoroughbreds are required to be retired for five calendar years. All candidates must have been active within the past 25 years. The 20-and 25-year requirements for jockeys and trainers, respectively, may be waived at the discretion of the Museum’s Executive Committee. Candidates who have not been active within the past 25 years are eligible through the Historic Review process.
