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Tales from the Crib: Fierceness

Mar 01, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Fierceness lying down as a foal

Fierceness illustrates his laid-back personality (Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End Farms)

If champion Fierceness can fulfill owner Mike Repole’s quest for the Kentucky Derby (G1), his victory would carry special meaning as a Repole Stable homebred. The colt’s mother, and both of her parents, sported Repole’s blue and orange silks, a color scheme inspired by the New York Mets.

A Derby win by Fierceness might also be viewed as a recapitulation of some elements from Repole’s past experiences, this time with a triumphant ending.

Fierceness is the third Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) champion that Repole has had on the Derby trail. His first two were both auction purchases, Uncle Mo and Forte (the latter in partnership with St. Elias Stables). Their trails, a dozen years apart in 2011 and 2023 respectively, each culminated in the profound disappointment of having to scratch at Churchill Downs.

Repole has had seven Derby runners, including four campaigned in partnerships, but none has finished nearer than fifth. Two of those also-rans owned by Repole himself – Stay Thirsty (2011) and Outwork (2016) – have pedigree connections to Fierceness.

Stay Thirsty, who went on to capture such major races as the Travers (G1) and Cigar Mile (G1), appears as the maternal grandfather of Fierceness. Outwork, the Wood Memorial (G1) winner who didn’t race again after the Derby, is an “uncle” of Fierceness. Repole’s only homebred Derby runner so far, Outwork is a half-brother to Fierceness’s mother.

Their equine family bears a loving tribute to Repole’s human family. Outwork is out of the mare Nonna Mia, who is named after Repole’s grandmother (“nonna”). Repole continued the theme of honoring her by naming one of Nonna Mia’s daughters Nonna Bella; another of her fillies is called Nonna’s Tiramisu. The name of Nonna Mia’s current two-year-old has yet to be revealed; he sold for a sales-topping $3 million at Keeneland last September.

Nonna Bella, by Stay Thirsty, would become the mother (dam) of Fierceness. Like Nonna Mia, who was Grade 1-placed in her brief career on the racetrack, Nonna Bella flashed talent in just a handful of starts. In fact, she was an individual interest in the 2017 Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, but dropped off the trail after a fourth in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2). There’s a sense that both “Nonnas” were likely capable of achieving more than their bare record implies.

After Nonna Bella began her broodmare life by visiting Uncle Mo (twice), she visited a another stallion, City of Light, in 2020. While Repole owned shares in City of Light, there was a specific rationale behind their match. The cross of Quality Road (City of Light’s sire) over a Bernardini-line mare had already produced Grade 1 winner Dunbar Road, highly regarded by Repole’s pedigree guru Ed Rosen.

The resulting foal, Fierceness, arrived on March 28, 2021 at Lane’s End Farm, the renowned residence of both parents.

Fierceness with dam Nonna Bella

Fierceness with dam Nonna Bella (Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End Farms)

Lane’s End famously hosted Queen Elizabeth II during her visits to Kentucky. The farm boasts a roster of Thoroughbred dignitaries, from the late, great A.P. Indy and fellow Hall of Famer Zenyatta to unbeaten phenom Flightline.

Founded by Will Farish, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (2001-04), Lane’s End has antecedents reaching back much further into history. It includes the property once known as Bosque Bonita, the 19th-century farm where *Leamington stood his first U.S. breeding season in 1866. The British import later moved back East and sired the first Kentucky Derby winner, Aristides (1875).

As the Derby celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2024, it would be an historical twist if the sire of the 150th Derby winner stands at Bosque Bonita’s successor.

Baby Fierceness goes for a stroll

Baby Fierceness goes for a stroll (Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End Farms)

Fierceness was average-sized as a yearling, but there was nothing plain about the well-made bay colt.

“He was all quality,” Allaire Ryan, the sales director at Lane’s End, said of the colt with a “beautiful frame.”

With his “very laid back” personality, he “stayed out of trouble and always under the radar.”

Slated for the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Fierceness took his sales prep in stride.

“He was not the biggest or flashiest, but every time you saw him, he just kept getting better and better,” Ryan recalled.

“He was happy to go through the prep process, happy to do his job. He was a careful horse. He took care of himself, never got injured or into trouble.

“He was a really intelligent individual…he was just so easy.”

For that very reason, Fierceness doesn’t have quirks to furnish any amusing anecdotes.

Ryan sums him up as the one who would have been “most liked” in school: “He definitely wasn’t the class clown!”

Along with his conformation and good mind, Fierceness had another desirable trait: he moved well, with a fluent, effortless action.

When bloodstock agents came to scout out the yearlings on the farm in advance of the sale, Fierceness generated favorable comments. In fact, the feedback was so encouraging that Repole decided to take him out of the sale, and race the colt himself.

Fierceness was sent to Ocala Stud for his early lessons before joining Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Forte was a graduate of the same storied Florida academy the year prior. Also in Fierceness’s class were fellow Derby candidates Locked, Born Noble, and Agate Road (co-owned by Repole), all earmarked for Pletcher as well.

Shipped to Pletcher’s string at Monmouth Park last summer, Fierceness soon got promoted to the elite squad at Saratoga.

“He’s very good and a pleasure to train,” Pletcher told the New York Racing Association publicity team last fall. “He’s got a great disposition. He’ll go easy if you want him to, fast if you want him to. He’s got a great temperament. He’s always been that way.

“He’s very unassuming and is always going about his business until we asked him to pick it up one day and it was like, ‘Wow, this horse can run.’”

Fierceness showed everyone that he can run with a smashing debut as the 11-10 favorite at Saratoga, sparking comparisons with Uncle Mo. The Uncle Mo parallel didn’t extend to the Champagne (G1), though, when Fierceness wound up a troubled seventh. Unforgiving bettors dispatched him at 16-1 in the Breeders’ Cup, but a better start at Santa Anita propelled Fierceness to a resounding score, and championship honors.

Unlike Uncle Mo and Forte, Fierceness lost his comeback at Gulfstream Park. He was again compromised at the break in the Feb. 3 Holy Bull (G3), recovered to challenge Ocala Stud-bred Hades in a brief tussle, and tired to third. The March 30 Florida Derby (G1) is expected to serve up a rematch between the Ocala alums.

As that summary reveals, Fierceness hasn’t followed the same script as Uncle Mo or Forte at this stage. Might that turn out to be an auspicious sign of better fortunes on the first Saturday in May?

Thirteen years after Stay Thirsty carried Repole’s silks beneath the Twin Spires, his grandson could be the one to bring Repole and family into the Derby winner’s circle.

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