As the Saratoga summer reaches its climax, Steve Dennis sees last year’s juvenile champ silence the doubters with a solid victory over gallant filly Thorpedo Anna in the Travers Stakes
We leave home with a destination in mind. We know where we’re going, and how to get there.
Then a fog descends, a thick chowder of misdirection, and we step this way and that way, believing that we remain on the right path. After a time, a long time, a light gleams in the distance, and we hasten towards it, journey’s end at last.
On arrival, we find that it is the light we left on upstairs by accident and we are home again, back where we started, having come full circle through the fog.
When we set out, Fierceness was the divisional leader, champion two-year-old colt. Along the route, in all that fog of trials and preps and gossip, he lost his way – or so we thought.
Yet we were the ones who took the wrong turning, went astray. Only now do we see the light, and what it shows us now is what it showed us then.
“This is the best three-year-old in the country right now. I don’t think anyone can deny it,” owner Mike Repole told the Blood-Horse. “He’s pretty special.”
Fierceness is the divisional leader again, king of the hill, having put the pretenders to his throne to the sword with a dramatic, definitive, pretty gritty victory under John Velazquez in the Travers, the centrepiece of the Saratoga summer.
He turned back the closing surge of the filly Thorpedo Anna (in receipt of 5lb) to win by a head as 7-2 third-choice, with the pick of his peers well adrift. Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss.
“I think the key to the success in the Jim Dandy and Travers was when we made the decision to pass the Belmont,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, nailing his third win in the Travers and his first since Stay Thirsty (also owned by Repole) in 2011.
“For whatever reason, the Derby was really hard on him,” added P letcher. “We shipped him from Churchill Downs to Saratoga a few days after and the next time I saw him the horse didn’t look like he did before the Derby, he’d lost weight.
“So I talked to Mike about it and said let’s see how he does the next couple of weeks. We worked him one time and he just wasn’t himself, so we made the decision to pass the Belmont, and I think that is why we were successful in the Jim Dandy and the Travers.”
For the rest of us, feeling our way blindly through the fog, Fierceness’s cold-water display in the Kentucky Derby (he ran 15th as favourite) was categorical. We have seen so many champion juveniles fail to progress, and we are too eager to close the case on the next one.
Fierceness shows us our folly, as does his future rival City Of Troy, the Irish paragon who was beaten out of sight on his seasonal bow and then roundly dismissed, but flawless in G1s ever since.
Travers runner-up Thorpedo Anna ran a terrific race in defeat, justifying the decision to pitch her in against colts, and trainer Kenny McPeek was thrilled, eventually.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last. I like trophies, not second place,” he told the Daily Racing Form when his blood was up, but then rationalised as the reality of what his champion filly had achieved came down upon him.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with her and she’s been great. Everything really went to plan other than one horse in her way. She’s so special, and we’re just really proud of her.”
Sierra Leone, a bizarre choice as favorite, played his habitual walk-on part in third, Dornoch was denied the chance to lead and faded into fourth, and the rest were outclassed.
It was Fierceness’s day, and likely his year. He will train up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he will meet that other forget-me-not City Of Troy in what may be a transatlantic duel for all-time.
“He’s going to be pretty tough in the Classic,” added Repole. At last year’s Breeders’ Cup, Fierceness was disregarded at 16-1 in the Juvenile after a poor prep run, and proceeded to hose his rivals by more than six lengths.
We fogged that one up. Next time, perhaps, we won’t get lost on the way to the windows.
Good karma: Rodolphe Brisset
A winner at Saratoga is special. A big winner at Saratoga is life-enhancing. Training your first G1 winner on the marquee day of the year at the Spa? Ask Rodolphe Brisset.
“Obviously, if I let go, I am going to cry,” he said, his words fighting their way past the lump in his throat, after Mullikin had justified chalk odds in the seven-furlong Forego with a romping gate-to-wire success under ‘hot-hands’ Flavien Prat.
Brisset, a former assistant to Bill Mott, has held a licence since 2017 and was snapping a losing streak of 27 starts at the top level. Mullikin was also making his G1 breakthrough, the Violence colt now four-for-four in 2024 with the Breeders’ Cup in his sights, although he’ll either have to stretch out for the Dirt Mile or cut back for the Sprint.
Brisset will think about that choice later. Right now, he’s trying not to let go.
Bad karma: Chad Brown (yes, really)
“Growing up at the track, my Derby was the Travers, the midsummer derby, so to win that just once would be the most rewarding accomplishment I can think of – my home race at my home track.”
These were the words of the meet-leading trainer back in 2019. Brown had a tremendous week, capped with G1 victories for Domestic Product in the Jerkens Memorial and Raging Sea in the Personal Ensign, but he nevertheless came up short yet again in the Travers, postponing his lifetime ambition for another year.
Brown had the favourite in Sierra Leone (third) and a longshot in Unmatched Wisdom (seventh), and that show spot is the closest Brown has ever come to winning the great race. Some day, one day, surely his Travers travails will be over.
One to watch: Mentee
While we’re on the subject, keep an eye on Fierceness’s brother, also owned by Mike Repole and trained by Todd Pletcher, who won over five furlongs at Aqueduct in track-record time on his debut in June but was withdrawn with a fever before his next engagement in the G3 Sanford here last month.
He has cooled down since then and has been confirmed as a runner in the G1 Hopeful on closing-day Monday. It is statistically unlikely that he will be as good as his brother but the blood in his veins will in turn set our pulses quickening, at least for now.
Quotes of the week
“It’s a four-horse field and there are no empty stalls here. So where are the other trainers? They need to stop complaining and start running.”
Chad Brown shoots from the lip after his trio and Todd Pletcher’s lone entry were all that turned up for Thursday’s G2 Ballston Spa.
“This is the plan. That’s why she stayed in training. Three races with the Breeders’ Cup as the third race.”
Steve Asmussen loves it when a plan comes together, and G1 Ballerina winner Society will play a big role in his A-team at Del Mar in November.
“She’s the champion, and we can agree to disagree but I still feel like she’s the best filly on the east coast.”
Difference of opinion makes horse races; Florent Geroux is still a huge fan of Idiomatic despite their narrow loss to Raging Sea in Friday’s Personal Ensign.
“Every time he comes off the rail, he is a little bit all over the place.”
Christophe Clement had nothing to worry about in the Sword Dancer as his slightly erratic star Far Bridge went straight to the fence and rolled coast-to-coast.
Week 7 in numbers
1-2-3 for Chad Brown in the Ballston Spa, with Beaute Cachee leading home Gina Romantica and Delahaye
5 wins clear at the top of the jockeys’ list for Irad Ortiz, with six days of the meet to go (Ortiz is suspended for one day)
14 stakes wins for Flavien Prat, one short of the meet record
14 races on Travers Saturday, a monster card and the biggest for ten years
63 million dollars bet on Travers day, another record boosted by the extra race
111 Beyer speed figure for Travers exacta horses Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna
The ‘where are they now?’ file
Meet Schrodinger’s horse. At once, Gulfport is both a G1 winner and not a G1 winner. Surely he can’t be both, you say, but he is.
Way, way back in 2022, Gulfport ran second to Forte in the G1 Hopeful on closing day at the Spa. Nine months later, Forte was reported to have tested post-race positive for meloxicam, and at length his DQ was announced, allowing for Gulfport’s elevation to first place.
Yet Forte’s owners, Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola, are contesting the judgement in court despite having their initial appeal denied. The case continues, as all the best court reporters write, and so the status of Schrodinger’s horse remains – in time-honoured fashion – unclear.
And what of Gulfport himself? Injury restricted this potential Classic type to just one run in 2023, but he won an allowance on his return in June and was in a similar race here on Thursday until the vet nixed his participation.
He’s still a winner. He might also be a G1 winner. Or he might not. It’s enough to make a cat laugh.
Coming soon
Where have the days gone? As summer cedes to fall, Saratoga’s final weekend comes around all too soon and the closing highlight on Sunday is the Jockey Club Gold Cup (now run here instead of Belmont Park).
To peruse its honor roll is to be lightly fanned by the pages of racing’s Who’s Who?, and although the propinquity of the Breeders’ Cup has taken a deal of gilt off its gingerbread, the race still makes a big noise in the sport.
This year’s edition – complemented by juvenile G1s Spinaway (Saturday) and Hopeful (Monday) – is fronted by Whitney winner Arthur’s Ride and last year’s winner Bright Future. Fabulous fan favourite Next, initially a ‘perhaps’ for the race, will wait for the G3 Greenwood Cup at Parx on September 21.
• Visit the NYRA Saratoga website
A life after racing: Travers hero V.E. Day thriving in third career as ambassador at Old Friends
Week 4: Saratoga’s Olympian: Next and the loneliness of the long-distance runner
Week 3: No excuse needed as the real Fierceness stands up – plus McPeek takes the plunge
Week 1: It’s still Chad Brown’s world at Saratoga … we’re just living in it!
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