Fit And Rested, Champion Fierceness Is Ready For More Racing

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Missing from action for two months, but certainly not forgotten, beaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Fierceness (City of Light) is ready to make his comeback.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said the Repole Stable homebred is set to resume competition in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 20 with stablemates Mindframe (Constitution) and Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso). Mindframe is making his first start since finishing second in the GI Belmont Stakes on June 8. Tuscan Sky won the Pegasus Stakes on June 15 at Monmouth by 6 3/4 lengths. Fierceness has not been seen since the Derby on May 4. The next step for all three will be considered after they work Saturday morning.

“We’re wanting to see how they continue to train,” Pletcher said. “We’re pleased with all three of them. Obviously, the upcoming breeze is going to be important to make some final decisions.”

Fierceness clinched the 2-year-old male Eclipse Award with his 6 1/4-length triumph in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and his record 13 1/2-length victory in the GI Curlin Florida Derby made him the 3-1 favorite in the 150th Run for the Roses. He ended up 15th in the Derby, beaten a couple of dozen lengths.

After the Derby disappointment, Pletcher and owner Mike Repole decided to go slowly with Fierceness. He has had five breezes at Saratoga and Pletcher said the colt is doing well.

“I think physically he’s more mature. I think he’s put on some weight,” Pletcher said. “Mentally, he’s always been so laid back, I don’t notice any change there. We accomplished what we wanted, which was to put some weight back on and get him back to this physical best.”

Fierceness’s past performances show that he has been inconsistent with losses in the GI Champagne Stakes, GIII Holy Bull Stakes and the Derby. Pletcher noted that he has managed to find trouble and that possibly the timing of his races may have contributed to the uneven results in his career.

“To me, he’s had two off races, in the Derby and the Champagne,” Pletcher said. “I think the Holy Bull, maybe is people are being a little harsh on him. He was third the first time out after the Breeders’ Cup and he had a really rough, rough trip going into the first turn that day. I don’t think that race was as bad.

“Everyone says, ‘Oh, he runs one good race and then he runs a really bad race.’ Maybe he doesn’t run as good as he’s capable of every time, but I don’t think it was as bad as people thought. I think the Derby was just a really hard race on him. He was close to a hot pace and he was tired after the race. It took us a couple of weeks to get him back going. I’m glad we passed the Belmont [Stakes]. I think we’ve got him back to where he was going into the Florida Derby, so I look for him to rebound with a good effort.”

Patience has been the rule for Pletcher in his quest to find the right program for Fierceness. It is certainly not the first time in his distinguished career that Pletcher has had to figure out how to fine tune a talented runner.

“I’m sure there are a ton we’ve had setbacks with, that’s for sure,” Pletcher said, “but I can’t think of a top horse that we’ve had that we know has remarkable ability that’s had a couple of off races like that. I do think when you look at them, there’s kind of excuses for all of them. In the Champagne he hopped at the start and then he got bumped around. In the Holy Bull, he got in tons of trouble going into the first turn. In the Derby, he was probably too close to the pace. We got the trip we wanted. It just turned out to maybe not the right trip for him on the day.”

Regardless of how Fierceness runs in his next start, Pletcher said it is unlikely that he will be in the starting gate for Saratoga’s marquee race, the GI Travers Stakes on Aug. 24. With spacing of races even more of a priority, the steppingstone to the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic might be the GI Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 21.

“If you look at the Florida Derby, it was five weeks, which we liked, and laid out the plan of the Holy Bull to the Florida Derby,” Pletcher said. “We liked the spacing to give him some extra time. When you win the Florida Derby by 13 lengths, even though it seems easy, he did it effortlessly, he might have still needed more time to recover, even though all the signs leading into it were what we were hoping for. I thought he worked great over the track at Churchill. But, as usual, the track that he worked on at Churchill that day was not the same track that we ran the Derby on. That’s part of the Derby.”