The ferocity of Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, fighter John Velasquez, owner/breeder Mike Repole and the rest of the racing world has made 2024 very interesting with young ups and downs. Shall we summarize again? On November 3, 2023, Santa Anita’s master John Velasquez, pictured below, lit the burner to win the Juvenile Breeders’ Cup, leaving his pack in the dust. At the beginning of this year. He hailed at Holy Bull in February, then bounced back with a convincing win in the Florida Derby on March 30 to earn a starting spot in the Matches Tour and earn his long-awaited ‘Pletcher’s Boy to Watch’ status. Kentucky Derby.
All seemed well until the big gate opened at 20 furlongs at Churchill Downs. Then Fierceness took a few reluctant sniffs. As we all know, he finished 15th against far less competition. The writer and the pimp are confused. What happened there? Has he arrived with a bad case of derby and panic? Disqualification or Disqualification? I don’t know! The problem was that the Fierceness Derby wasn’t just an official “bad” race. It was a horribly distorted mirror image of a great vision gone off the rails. Most top thoroughbreds in their third year can’t do that. And the problem is that words are not very helpful or helpful in our self-diagnosis. But you have to know how to get your horse. . This derby performance and its author required time and careful deciphering.
Pletcher meticulously got the job done and sent the colt to Saratoga for most of the 90-day vacation/back to school period rather than racing. As well-coordinated racing monsters, the horses required little physical training. It was his teenage mind that needed rest. Jim returned to the racing world with two convincing wins in the Dandy and Travers less than a month apart. Those two runs qualified Pletcher and Repole for the Breeders’ Classic on November 2nd. Yes, Fierceness, who won the Travers, managed to stay clear of the Torpedo colt Anna, and the potential embarrassment in the final stadium was a lot of fun for everyone but Pletcher, Repole and the rest. But brutality prevented him from winning, and his back-to-back victories helped the race group escape the bleak outlook for the 2024 stops.
Brutality remains the favorite at Saratoga, and the Breeders’ Cup remains at the heart of his connections. The question is how the child is doing. He responded with a five-furlong record of 1:01.69 on October 17 at Saratoga’s Oklahoma Course. Saratoga covered the final two furlongs in 24.85 seconds, or just over 12 seconds each. That’s a fast pace for the current course, with Adirondack temperatures just above freezing in the morning. Its run time was satisfactory. 1:14.67 for six furlongs; Second place is 1:27.94 and 1:42.57 miles. Pletcher and Repole plan to ship it to Southern California on Oct. 27, five days before the Nov. 2 Classic.
The question is whether he has the right mind and is strong enough to handle the massive competition the Breeders’ Cup Classic will attract – in this case, the likes of Krupi, Tapit Trice, Sierra Leone, Arthur Raid and Next. Everyone would like to see Fierceness bring some light derby style play to Del Mar.
