Breeders’ Cup: Fierceness bounces back to win Juvenile for trainer Todd Pletcher

ARCADIA — Conventional wisdom might have told us to steer clear of Fierceness in Friday’s $2 million Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. In the race that oftentimes determines the early favorite for the following spring’s Kentucky Derby, the City of Light colt didn’t look as appealing as others in the nine-horse lineup.

Fierceness, a Mike Repole homebred trained by Todd Pletcher, not only put that wisdom to rest, he did it emphatically with a 6¾-length victory under Hall of Famer John Velazquez in the excellent time of 1:41.90 for the mile and a sixteenth. It’s the fastest Breeders’ Cup Juvenile since Midshipman’s 1:40.94 in 2008.

Sent postward at generous odds of 16-1 after flopping as the 3-5 favorite in the Grade I Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 7 and finishing seventh, 20¼ lengths behind the winning Timberlake, Fierceness showed the 11¼-length victory in his maiden debut on Aug. 25 at Saratoga was more indicative of his talent than his stakes debut six weeks later.

“Look, not everyone would do that (enter a Breeders’ Cup race off a seventh-place finish),” Pletcher said after earning his 15th Breeders’ Cup victory (fifth all-time) on Future Stars Friday. “We talked about it. We covered every base after the Champagne. The horse trained awesome all summer. He was a monster since his debut. We took a shot today and it worked out.”

For Repole, it was the first horse he bred to win a Breeders’ Cup race.

“When he ran his maiden, he ran the way we thought he was going to run,” Repole said. “Then in the Champagne, he was a heavy favorite, trained (well) … he ran in the mud at Saratoga and then the mud at Aqueduct and it didn’t work out. He stumbled and never got himself going.”

This wasn’t Repole’s first rodeo in the Juvenile. He won with Uncle Mo in 2010 and again last year with Forte. Both were favorites heading into the following year’s Kentucky Derby but had to be scratched.

“They will all tell you to start thinking about the Derby,” Repole said. “I scratched Uncle Mo as the Derby favorite and Forte, so I’m not going to think about the Derby with this race.”

Fierceness was second much of the way, never more than a length behind pacesetter General Partner’s splits of 23.25, 47.02 and 1:10.86 before taking the lead at the top of the stretch and cruising home.

The Bob Baffert-trained Muth finished second, a half-length in front of 2-1 favorite Locked. Timberlake was four lengths farther back in fourth, followed by Prince of Monaco, General Partner, Cuban Thunder, Wine Me Up and Noted. Irad Ortiz, Jr. opted to ride Noted rather than the winner, both trained by Pletcher and owned by Repole.

“He went forwardly and sat second nicely,” Velazquez said. “Once we passed the half-mile pole, he grabbed into the bridle a little sooner than I wanted. When he got to the quarter pole, he started looking around so I got after him. He was running down the stretch and got serious once I got after him. I had no doubt (about winning). I worked him in the morning and I was very impressed. I was hoping he would put the same work in the afternoon.”

Juan Hernandez, who rode Muth, was pleased by his colt’s effort.

“I’m really proud of my horse,” he said. “He gave me everything that he had. I had a good break and was following the winner. I was tracking him and I was in a good spot. My horse was running really well and all the time I was thinking I was the winner … we got beat, but my horse ran really good and I was happy with that. We got beat by a better horse today.”

So did the eight other 2-year-olds, some of whom showed they are not worthy of Kentucky Derby consideration at this point.

“Todd and I all week have said if he is sixth by 12 (lengths) or first by five, we wouldn’t be surprised,” Repole said. “We’re not surprised, but we’re pretty happy right now.

“This one’s really special because 14 years ago the horse that won this race called Uncle Mo put the Repole Stable on the map. And Johnny Velazquez rode him. We were in our 30s, now we’re in our 50s. These wins feel a lot better now.”

Racing resumes Saturday with nine Cup races, including the $6 million Classic.