Spa: Jim Dandy has Fierceness, Sierra Leone, Seize the Grey

Grade 1 winners Fierceness, Sierra Leone and Seize the Grey look to return to the win column in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile main-track test for 3-year-olds at Saratoga.

The Jim Dandy will serve as the major local prep for $1.25 million Travers (G1) on Aug. 24.

Repole Stable’s 2023 champion juvenile colt Fierceness last was seen attending the pace before finishing a distant 15th as the beaten favorite in the Kentucky Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the City of Light bay entered from a 13 1/2-length romp in the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby (G1) in March at Gulfstream Park.

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“We are happy with him. We gave him plenty of time after the Kentucky Derby, and I think it has done him well,” Pletcher said. “He has put on some weight and has trained really well.”

The Florida Derby performance earned a career- and field-best 110 Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form. That improved on Fierceness’s previous best 105 for a 6 1/4-length victory over now multiple Grade 1 winner Muth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November at Santa Anita. Both wins came with Hall of Fame jockey John Velázquez.

Fierceness, who was scratched from Saturday’s Haskell (G1) at Monmouth Park in favor of this race, completed his final preparations with a half-mile breeze in 49.61 seconds Sunday over the Spa main track.

“We weren’t looking to do a whole lot. It was kind of a final easy half-mile before the race,” Pletcher said. “I thought it was executed very well. It looks like he’s in good order.”

A Kentucky homebred out of the winning Stay Thirsty mare Nonna Bella, Fierceness won his debut by 11 1/4 lengths in August in his lone appearance at Saratoga. He boasts a lifetime record of 6: 3-0-1 with $1,703,850 in earnings.

Fierceness, assigned 124 pounds, will exit the outermost post 6 under Velázquez.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out Sierra Leone from post 1 carrying 124 pounds including Flavien Prat. He enters from a closing third in the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga.

The late-running Gun Runner dark bay traveled last of 10 during the middle stages of the Belmont before showing his turn of foot. He was unable to reel in the victorious Dornoch after drifting in and bumping with some rivals.

Sierra Leone returned to the work tab June 23 on the Oklahoma dirt training track at the Spa and has completed weekly half-mile breezes since. Sunday he covered the distance in 49.73 seconds working solo.

“He did super. He’s in a nice rhythm,” Brown said. “He galloped out with good energy. That’s just what I’m looking for six days out. Really solid and well within himself.”

Brown said Sierra Leone has developed into a good solo workhorse after having worked in company before the Belmont.

“For right now at this point of his campaign, it’s working for him taking him out of company for a little bit,” Brown said. “He’s very fit, and I’m just looking to bring him to the race healthy and focused.”

In the Belmont defeat Sierra Leone matched his career-best 99 Beyer that was earned when he was defeated by a nose by Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby. That was at the end of a battle with Forever Young in the stretch drive.

Although denied in his pair of Triple Crown efforts, Sierra Leone successfully closed to win his first start this year when adding blinkers in the 1 1/8-mile Risen Star (G2) in February at Fair Grounds. He followed with a rallying score in the Blue Grass (G1) in April at Keeneland, also at Saturday’s distance.

Brown is the leading trainer at the Spa summer meet with 10 wins, including victories during the past week with Unmatched Wisdom in Friday’s restricted Curlin, with promising maiden Incentive Pay on Saturday and with Raging Sea in the Shuvee (G2) on Sunday.

Brown said he wants some pace for his late-running charge to chase in the Jim Dandy.

“I’m hoping for a fair-run race where horses can win from anywhere," Brown said before Raging Sea scored his stalking victory Sunday. “I had a horse win wire to wire in the Curlin. I had a baby win from off the pace (Saturday). I think the track has really come around and is playing a lot more fair for any type of horse a trainer may enter.”

The $2.3 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select-yearling-sale purchase out of the Grade 1-winning Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love, Sierra Leone has earned a field-high $2,118,000 through a 6: 3-2-1 record. He is campaigned by the Coolmore trio Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith as well as Peter Brant, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook Smith.

To the delight of more than 2,500 shareholders, MyRacehorse’s Seize the Grey was a pacesetting, 2 1/4-length victor in the Preakness on May 18 at Pimlico. Trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, the Arrogate gray successfully stretched to 1 3/16 miles after taking the Pat Day Mile (G2) on May 4 at Churchill Downs.

Seize the Grey showed the way once again last out in the Belmont before fading to seventh. In his other local effort, the $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select-yearling-sale purchase graduated at second asking with a 1 3/4-length score over Dornoch in July 2023.

Seize the Grey, who was assigned post 2 and 124 pounds including Jaime Torres for Saturday, is out of the stakes-placed Smart Strike mare Smart Shopping, a half-sister to dual graded-stakes winner Power Broker and stakes winner Fierce Boots. He has earned $1,839,938 from a record of 11: 4-0-3.

Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Batten Down, who got post 3 with 120 pounds including Júnior Alvarado, 120 pounds, is the lone Jim Dandy entrant to enter off a graded victory. He earned it in the 1 1/8-mile Ohio Derby (G3) on June 22 at Thistledown. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Tapit gray set the pace and held off returning foe Gould’s Gold by 1 3/4 lengths.

Batten Down won by 8 3/4 lengths to graduate fourth out going 1 1/4 miles against older rivals April 30 at Churchill. Both scores earned career-best 93 Beyers.

“When you have a horse like that, you look at all the options and think of where you fit. We felt it was time to reach out and take a chance in the Jim Dandy,” Mott said. “It is (a step up). With Sierra Leone, it makes it a tough race.”

Out of the multiple Grade 1 winner and 2014 champion older mare Close Hatches, Batten Down is a full brother to the Mott-trained multiple graded-stakes winner Tacitus, who was a close second to Tax in the 2019 Jim Dandy. He also is a full brother to multiple graded-stakes winner Scylla, who still is active for Mott.

Gould’s Gold, in post 5 with 118 pounds including Brian Hernandez Jr., enters from the Ohio Derby for conditioner Kenny McPeek. Owned by 4 G Racing, Lance Gasaway and Magdalena Farm, the Goldencents gray also was second in the Sir Barton on May 18 at Pimlico. He lost to Corporate Power, who exited to run second to 3-for-3 Unmatched Wisdom in the Curlin on Friday at Saratoga.

McPeek said Gould’s Gold will have to improve to top this talented field, but it is not out of the question after a sharp half-mile breeze in 47.60 seconds on Saturday over the Oklahoma training track.

“He’s certainly one of the better 3-year-olds, but he’s got to find four or five lengths. We’re ambitious to try him, and we like the work he’s been doing,” McPeek said. “We might as well try him, and then later in the season we have the option to go back to allowance condition. But right now there’s that window of time to work through, if he’s next level. He trains like he is.”

Gould’s Gold also has been the workmate of multiple Grade 1-winning sophomore filly Thorpedo Anna, including a five-eighths breeze in 1:01.55 over the Oklahoma track last Saturday.

Pony Express in post 4 with 118 pounds including Joel Rosario for trainer John Sadler completes the field. Owned by Talla Racing, Three Chimneys Farm and West Point Thoroughbreds, Pony Express ships from Santa Anita off a nine-length victory traveling 1 1/16 miles June 15. The Gun Runner chestnut out of the dual graded-stakes-winning Quiet American mare Quiet Temper was making his third start, having sported blinkers in all.

The Jim Dandy will be the 10th of 12 races on Saturday’s card at Saratoga, and it is scheduled for 5:43 p.m. EDT. The first post is at 12:35 p.m. The National Weather Service has forecast a sunny day with a high near 86 degrees.