SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fierceness and Sierra Leone were the hot 3-year-olds of the Triple Crown prep season, combining to win three of four graded stakes on the way to the Kentucky Derby. Coming off his record-setting 13 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, Fiereceness was sent off as the 3-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby. By virtue of his eye-catching wins in the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 1 Blue Grass, Sierra Leone went off the 9-2 second choice. In the Derby, Fierceness finished 15th and Sierra Leone was second by a nose to Mystik Dan. Fierceness hasn’t run since. Sierra Leone came back in the Belmont Stakes, where, as the favorite, he finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Dornoch. Saturday, Fierceness and Sierra Leone head a six-horse field entered in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, hoping to flash their previous form and attempt to get back in the race for divisional honors. :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day. Most likely, Sierra Leone will go off favored this time. The Jim Dandy represents a cutback to 1 1/8 miles – the distance of his Risen Star and Blue Grass victories – and appears to have ample speed types to set up his late run. “On paper, at least, it seems like a good situation for our horse,” Chad Brown, trainer of Sierra Leone said. “It’s a short field to avoid some of the traffic that can come with a deep closer. Despite it being a short field, there are some fast horses in there. That said, the horses that have speed are good horses and they’ve shown the ability to carry it.” Sierra Leone has been his own worst enemy. If not for a tendency to lug in, he could be undefeated, his three losses coming by a combined 1 3/4 lengths. Brown changed bits going into the Belmont and put on a new rider in Flavien Prat. While the horse did veer in some, Brown felt the speed-favoring nature of the Saratoga track that day compromised his more. Brown sees a different track since the regular Saratoga meet opened on July 11. “When you look through the charts of the races and you see horses on both courses really, particularly the dirt, winning from all over – on the lead, midpack, closers – I think that’s the first sign it’s a fair track for everyone involved,” Brown said. “I think they’ve done an excellent job getting this track in really good, fair shape.” Brown also see signs of maturity in Sierra Leone to the point where he is now breezing the horse by himself as opposed to in company. “I see this horse really maturing mentally quite a bit over the summer and I’m very excited to see what he’s going to do Saturday,” Brown said. When Fierceness is good, he’s spectacular. He has won three of six starts; those wins – including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Florida Derby – have come by a combined 31 lengths. He flopped in the slop in last fall’s Champagne and may have been too close to a hot pace in the Kentucky Derby. Trainer Todd Pletcher felt Fierceness didn’t bounce out of the Kentucky Derby well enough to run in the Belmont so he has now pointed him to the Jim Dandy. “I think it’s important for us and for him and his reputation to have a good start,” Pletcher said. “I can’t say that he has anything to prove; he’s already a 2-year-old champion and a Grade 1 winner at 3. We would just like to put the Derby behind us and rebound with a good effort, keep moving forward, and display that kind of talent he has.” Earlier in the week Pletcher said of Fierceness, “If he runs his Florida Derby, they all better look out.” Seize the Grey won the Preakness on the front end but set the pace in the Belmont and retreated to seventh, beaten 12 3/4 lengths by Dornoch. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas felt that Seize the Grey might have felt the effects of his wins in the Pat Day Mile and Preakness two weeks apart. He also felt the Saratoga main track was “looser” then than it is now. “I worked him over it the other day and he really looked good doing it,” Lukas said of a six-furlong work in 1:11.40 on July 16. Lukas entered Thursday’s card winless with his last 40 starters since Seize the Grey won the Preakness. Batten Down comes into the Jim Dandy off two front-running victories, a maiden score at Churchill Downs on April 30 and a 1 3/4-length score in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby. Bill Mott, trainer of Batten Down, acknowledged this is a tougher group than he met in Ohio. “Huge class test,” Mott said. “As tough as going from a maiden to a graded stakes which he did. We’re trying to figure out what we got.” Gould’s Gold was second in the Ohio Derby after getting beat a nose in the Sir Barton at Pimlico Preakness Day. Pony Express, a nine-length maiden winner at Santa Anita on June 15, completes the field. The Jim Dandy goes as race 10 on a 12-race card that includes the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt and begins at 12:35 p.m. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.