Fierceness climbing the ranks of Pletcher's all-time best horses
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has a number of candidates from which to choose when he’s asked to name the best horse he’s ever trained. After running through a bushel of potential nominees, the Hall of Fame trainer settled on Left Bank.
“He ran seven-eighths in 1:20 in the Tom Fool and came back and set a track record in the Whitney,” said Pletcher, referring to Left Bank’s 1:47.04 clocking in the 2002 Whitney, a mark that was lowered five years later by the Pletcher-trained Lawyer Ron, who ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:46.64, a record that still stands.
Pletcher reels off the names of others who could be on that list, including Speightstown, More Than Ready, Uncle Mo, Quality Road, Ashado, and Rags to Riches. The common thread?
“The ability to run fast and keep running fast,” Pletcher said.
Fierceness has done that. For all the angst about a good race/bad race/good race/bad race profile early in his career, Fierceness has run nothing but good races since last summer. After a freshening following his 15th-place finish as the favorite in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, Fierceness won the Jim Dandy, beat the filly and ultimate Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna in the Travers, and ran a terrific second to Sierra Leone – whom he had defeated in the Jim Dandy and Travers – in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Last month, Fierceness kicked off his 4-year-old campaign with a track record-setting performance in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs, where he ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.66.
In addition to those four starts, Fierceness displayed brilliance at 2 and early in his 3-year-old career. He won his debut by 11 1/4 lengths going six furlongs and ended his season with a demonstrative 6 1/4-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. At 3, after a disappointing third in the Holy Bull Stakes, he set a Florida Derby record for margin of victory, winning by 13 1/2 lengths.
All of that is to say Fierceness is advancing up the charts of the best horses Pletcher has trained.
“He’s moving into that league,” Pletcher said.
The rest of his 4-year-old season will ultimately decide where Fierceness lands. It continues in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga, a high-profile race that drew only five, including 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio. The Met Mile – run out of the Wilson chute, making it a 1 1/2-turn race – will be the shortest distance Fierceness has run since he finished seventh in the Grade 1 Champagne in October of his 2-year-old season.
“The really good ones can do anything and, really, it’s just about the Met being a prestigious race, a Grade 1,” Pletcher said. “It was one of the goals we had coming back this year.”
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Pletcher trains Fierceness for owner-breeder Mike Repole, who stipulated that Fierceness race as a 4-year-old when he made a stallion deal with Coolmore, the global entity led by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Mrs. John Magnier. Repole knew he was potentially leaving money on the table by not retiring Fierceness following his 3-year-old year, but he wanted to see the horse run one more season before he was retired.
“Credit to Coolmore – they held up their end of the agreement when I said I’d like to bring him back,” Repole said. “I think he’s more talented at 3 than he was at 2 and he’s more talented at 4 than he was at 3.”
Repole overruled Pletcher last month by choosing to run in the Alysheba, whereas Pletcher wanted an easier spot in the Westchester at Aqueduct.
“I told Todd I didn’t bring Fierceness back to run on a Sunday at Aqueduct,” Repole said. “I did it so he could run on a showcase day for fans.”
Following the Met Mile, Fierceness will be pointed to the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 2 and ultimately another try at the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar in November, with a potential race in between. At last year’s Breeders’ Cup, Fierceness got engaged in an early pace duel with Derma Sotogake, and while that horse faded to 13th, Fierceness boxed on to finish second, 1 1/2 lengths behind the late-running Sierra Leone.
“Unfortunately, at Del Mar, we just went too fast early on,” Pletcher said. “The Japanese horse showed crazy speed. I think without him in there, it would have been a different outcome, but he still ran a tremendous race.”
A few more tremendous efforts and Fierceness could rank as the best horse Pletcher has ever trained.
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