Fierceness to stand at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud after racing career

Eclipse Award champion juvenile Fierceness, among the favorites for this Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic in a quest for more championship honors, will stand at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud upon his retirement from racing, the farm announced Sunday.

The stud deal gives the international stallion operation more investment in this year’s Classic, and also gives Ashford another champion campaigned by Mike Repole.

Ashford representatives said a date for Fierceness’s retirement would be determined in discussion with Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher following the Classic on Saturday at Del Mar.

“Fierceness hails from a young and hugely exciting family of his owner/breeder Mike Repole,” Ashford manager Dermot Ryan said. “He is an outstanding physical specimen and has proven himself to be a champion on the dirt at both 2 and 3 years. We’re tremendously excited to welcome Fierceness to Ashford, be it this year or next.”

Repole, in a social media post following the announcement, said that the deal he negotiated does include a provision for the colt to continue racing as a 4-year-old, with Coolmore to receive 50 percent of racing rights for that campaign, in that event.

“When negotiating the deal a year ago, I was very clear with Coolmore that I wanted this horse, if healthy and sound, to run as a 4-year-old,” Repole wrote.

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While Fierceness runs in Repole’s colors Saturday, the Coolmore colors will be carried by two other 3-year-olds in the Classic. The operation bred and owns leading European hope City of Troy - by Triple Crown winner and Ashford stallion Justify - who will retire to its Irish headquarters for 2025. Coolmore also co-owns Sierra Leone in partnership after purchasing the colt as a yearling; no date for his retirement has yet been announced.

Fierceness won the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to lock up championship honors. He added another Grade 1 in the Florida Derby during a roller-coaster first half to the season. He is rolling into the Classic off consecutive strong performances, having won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga, the latter over leading filly Thorpedo Anna.

Fierceness, by City of Light, is a homebred for Repole, who stands his former colorbearers at a variety of farms. The owner’s first champion was 2010 outstanding juvenile Uncle Mo, who is now a classic sire and among the flagship stallions at Ashford. Repole said that although the stallion deal for Fierceness was publicly announced Sunday, it had actually been negotiated following last year’s Juvenile.

“I am staying in with a significant share in Fierceness’s breeding rights,” the owner wrote, before joking, “The plan is to win the Breeders’ Cup and beat Coolmore’s City of Troy.”

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