Fierceness returns in Holy Bull with title in hand

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fierceness, runaway winner of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and near-unanimous choice as the year’s 2-year-old champion, will make his much-anticipated 3-year-old debut as the overwhelming favorite in Saturday’s $250,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

The Grade 3 Holy Bull will be decided at 1 1/16 miles and headlines a 12-race program that features four other stakes, three of them graded, for 3-year-olds with first post at 12:10 p.m. The Holy Bull will offer 42 qualifying points for the 2024 Kentucky Derby awarded to the top five finishers on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis.

Fierceness’s dominant, 6 1/4-length victory over Muth was one of the highlights of last year’s Breeders’ Cup and clearly established him as the early favorite for this year’s Kentucky Derby. It is a daunting task that faces him, as only Street Sense in 2006-07 and Nyquist in 2015-16 have ever been able to pull off the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-Kentucky Derby double.

Fierceness stamped himself among the early favorites for last year’s Juvenile after launching his career in sensational fashion for owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher with an 11 1/4-length maiden win on Aug. 25 at Saratoga. But those lofty expectations were quickly diminished after Fierceness, a son of City of Light, broke poorly and never factored finishing a distant seventh six weeks later in the Grade 1 Champagne. It was an effort so disappointing in the eyes of the public that Fierceness fell off the radar and was dismissed at odds of 16-1 in the Juvenile only to vault right back to the top of the division after prompting the pace and then drawing away with complete authority under jockey John Velazquez through the final furlong.

“We were both thrilled with his performance in the Breeders’ Cup and happy that he vindicated himself from the Champagne and delivered the performance we thought he was capable of,” Pletcher said. “I think some people questioned how good he might be after the Champagne, and it was very rewarding to see him do that.”

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Everything has gone about as perfect as possible for Fierceness since Pletcher brought him down to his winter base at Palm Beach Downs to prepare for his 3-year-old campaign, with the Holy Bull selected as his first goal right from the start. Fierceness has had six works at the training center, including very impressive-looking five-furlong breezes in company with stablemates Locked and Born Noble, both of whom also are considered leading Kentucky Derby contenders at this time.

“Knock on wood, everything has gone according to plan since we’ve been down here,” said Pletcher, who will seek his third Holy Bull victory Saturday. “Everything has fallen into place perfectly. We wanted to give him a little bit of a freshening after the Breeders’ Cup but not let him down completely, and he has had some super breezes leading up to this.”

Pletcher is planning to use the Holy Bull as a stepping-stone to Fierceness’s final Kentucky Derby prep in the $1 million Florida Derby here on March 30. It’s the same route the Hall of Fame horseman took in 2018 with Audible, who won both the Holy Bull and Florida Derby before finishing third behind the mighty Justify later that spring in the Kentucky Derby.

“We like the spacing from the Holy Bull to the Florida Derby and the five weeks from the Florida Derby to the Kentucky Derby,” Pletcher said.

Fierceness, who will break from post position 7 under Velazquez, is one of eight horses originally entered for the Holy Bull, although trainer Jose D’Angelo has already confirmed that he will scratch No More Time to await what he feels is an easier spot in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis on Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs.

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Three of Fierceness’s six remaining rivals in the Holy Bull exit the first 3-year-old prep of the local season, the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on New Year’s Day, led by race winner Otello, who overcame some traffic issues before rallying to a half-length victory over First World War. Sea Streak and Inveigled, third and fourth, respectively, behind Otello; Dancing Groom, a distant third in the Champagne; the lightly raced but undefeated Hades; and Domestic Product complete the lineup.

Otello did not have the cleanest of trips when rallying to a neck decision winning his maiden at first asking, also going a mile, on Nov. 24 at Aqueduct. He will be making his first start around two turns in the Holy Bull.

“He got in trouble, he won, he’s trained well, he’s done nothing wrong,” Clement told Daily Racing Form’s David Grening earlier this week. “We need to know if we belong with that group or not.”

Hades also overcame trouble to capture his career debut going 5 1/2 furlongs here Dec. 9 before returning to overwhelm statebred allowance rivals by eight lengths going seven furlongs to close his 2-year-old campaign just 22 days later. The 84 Beyer Speed Figure he earned is the best last-out number for any member of the Holy Bull field aside from Fierceness, although he too must answer the two-turn question for the first time Saturday.

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