Fierceness maintains up & down pattern, wins Jim Dandy

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Has there ever been a horse at the elite level who could run so big and yet be so erratic?

Fierceness continued the win-lose pattern that he has maintained throughout his seven-race career when he captured the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes by one length against Sierra Leone on Saturday at Saratoga.

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When Mike Repole was asked how his perplexing 2023 juvenile male champion should be viewed among the pantheon of stars he has owned, he responded, “You could say it one or two ways. Strangest and one of the most talented. He’s definitely one of the most talented.”

But he is most definitely strange.

The homebred son of City of Light followed an 11 1/4-length romp when he debuted at Saratoga last August by flopping in the Champagne (G1). He performed so poorly that Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher debated long and hard about whether to go on with him to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. They were delighted they did when he dominated by 6 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita.

His 3-year-old campaign suffered an inauspicious beginning when a rough start in the Holy Bull (G3) led to defeat there. Then he was due to win again, and he demolished his competition by a whopping 13 1/2 lengths in the Florida Derby (G1).

The Kentucky Derby came next amid soaring hopes.

“After his final breeze before the Derby, we all felt really, really good about the way he was coming into the race,” Pletcher said.

So did the betting public, sending him off as the 3-1 favorite. It was not his time. He hopped at the start and wound up a lackluster 15th, adding to Repole’s history of Derby woes.

Pletcher prepared Fierceness for the Belmont Stakes but opted to back off, and the colt was entered and scratched from last Saturday’s Haskell (G1) at Monmouth Park, making the Jim Dandy his first start since the Derby debacle. As his history suggested, he was as ready as he could be.

“Once he broke well, I was really happy with the way he was going,” jockey John Velázquez said. “I didn’t want to be in his mouth either, so I put a little pressure on his mouth to start, but by the half-mile pole, I just let him get into a good rhythm. He was going pretty easy.”

Fierceness tracked West Coast shipper Pony Express in second, as the recent maiden winner took the six-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in 23.80 seconds and a half-mile in 47.44 seconds. Fierceness blew past him when asked, and Velázquez, anticipating that Sierra Leone would be uncorking his patented charge, allowed his mount to drift toward the middle of the track.

“I expected Sierra Leone to come out, so I went out. I just let him do it,” Velazquez said. “I wanted to get him out there, and when I looked, the other horse came inside.”

Indeed, Flavien Prat went inward with Sierra Leone to maintain his momentum, but there was no denying the winner. Fierceness completed the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.15 on the fast main track. Ohio Derby (G3) winner Batten Down, Preakness victor Seize the Grey, Gould’s Gold and Pony Express rounded out the Jim Dandy order of finish.

Chad Brown, Sierra Leone’s trainer, was quick to salute Fierceness.

“Fierceness really found more and ran a great race,” Brown said. “I’m happy with my horse’s performance. Yes, it’s a race he came up just short again, but he did fire, and it looked like he galloped out well. I’m looking forward to getting him back out to a mile-and-a-quarter in the Travers (G1), if he’s healthy.”

Since his victory in the Blue Grass (G1), Sierra Leone missed by a nose in the Kentucky Derby and ran third in the Belmont to lead into the Jim Dandy, the customary prep for the Travers.

Repole and Pletcher expressed doubt as to whether Fierceness will go on to the Aug. 24 Travers.

“I don’t know,” Pletcher said. “We kind of talked about this horse seems to do better with a little extra time in between races, so we won’t make any decisions right away.”

And so their attempts to solve the puzzle that is Fierceness continue.

As Pletcher put it, “We’ve got to break that streak somehow.”