Bred and raced by John and Fannie Hertz, she was born at their Leona Farm near Cary, Illinois.
She was named after the wife of Stuyvesant Peabody, then President of the Illinois Turf Association.
Anita Peabody's dam was La Dauphine, a daughter of The Tetrarch, who was voted Britain's greatest two-year-old of the 20th century.
Consigned to broodmare duty at Leona Farm, in February 1931 she gave birth to a son of the Hertzes' star runner, Reigh Count, who later would sire 1943 U.S.
Anita Peabody died unexpectedly of an infection at Leona Farm on August 27, 1934, having produced three foals.