Kentucky-bred Fierceness, a homebred for Repole Stable, dominated his rivals in the 40th running of the $2,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) on Future Stars Friday at Santa Anita. Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez, Fierceness won the 1 1/16-mile fixture by 6 ¼ lengths, completing the distance in 1:41.90. For Pletcher, it was his 15th Breeders’ Cup victory and fourth in the Juvenile.
General Partner set the pace with Fierceness and Muth stalking in second and third throughout. At the top of the lane, Fierceness and Muth were first and second, but it quickly turned into a one-horse race as Fierceness drew off powerfully in the stretch. Muth finished second and Locked rallied from last to finish third.
Fierceness is a Kentucky-bred son of City of Light out of the Stay Thirsty mare Nona Bella. The first-place prize of $1,040,000 improved Fierceness’ bankroll to $1,102,750. He now has two wins from three lifetime starts.
“Look not everyone would do that (enter the race off a seventh-place finish in the G1 Champagne S.),” noted Pletcher. “We talked about it. We covered every base after the Champagne. The horse trained awesome all summer (at Saratoga). He was a monster since his debut. We took a shot today and it worked out. He had a beautiful trip and he showed what he is all about. It was really about getting in a good rhythm with him and letting him get comfortable with him. (John Velazquez) was able to do that. It did look easy. Very impressive.”