Kenny McPeek jumped up from a front-row box and wound his arm around and around like a hand on a cartoon clock. Todd Pletcher dropped his binoculars, stood up from a fifth-row box, leaned over the ledge and pumped his fist. Two grown men – 119 years, 7,802 wins and 31,365 losses between them – riding every stride of two roiling 3-year-olds. The rest of the 47,844 fans rocking and rolling and riding, too. Fierceness and John Velazquez hanging tough and needing the line. Thorpedo Anna and Brian Hernandez Jr. gaining ground and needing a stride.
The finality of the finish line.
Fierceness, trained by Pletcher, held off Thorpedo Anna, trained by McPeek, by a head in the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers at Saratoga Race Course Saturday.
“Oh man, that was some race,” Pletcher said, walking down the steps and trying to regain some composure. “That filly ran unbelievable, too, didn’t she?”
Fierceness won the race. Thorpedo Anna made the race.
“Man, she ran big,” Hernandez said, pulling his dirt-packed tack off the sweat-soaked back of the least-deserving loser.
“Any other year,” McPeek said. “Any other year.”
It wasn’t any other year.
Two-year-old champion Fierceness broke sharply from the outside and three-time Grade 1 stakes winner Thorpedo Anna broke cleanly from the inside. In between, Junior Alvarado shook his reins and cued Ohio Derby winner Batten Down to launch to the lead. Luis Saez allowed Haskell and Belmont winner Dornoch to engage from the outside.
Batten Down led Dornoch through the first quarter mile in :23.53. Thorpedo Anna loped along the rail in third. Fierceness set up watchdog to her outside. Undefeated Curlin Stakes winner Unmatched Wisdom pulled Irad Ortiz Jr. uncomfortably into fifth. Belmont fourth Honor Marie, with blinkers on first for the first time, hung outside in sixth. Curlin runner-up Corporate Power settled to his inside on even terms with Blue Grass winner and favorite Sierra Leone on the inside.
Batten Down led Dornoch by three-quarters of a length through a half mile in :48.10. Thorpedo Anna inched ever closer along the inside and Fierceness countered every move to her outside. The leading four opened up 2 lengths on the lagging four.
Leaving the backside after three quarters in 1:11.62, Velazquez positioned Fierceness outside of Dornoch and Batten Down and a half-length ahead of Thorpedo Anna. Hernandez didn’t budge, knowing the cat had the mouse at the moment.
Midway on the turn, Velazquez, a firstrun, first-one-to-the-wire specialist, moved. Fierceness dispatched Batten Down and Dornoch in strides as Hernandez waited, shifted and followed. Sierra Leone clutched at kite tails yet again.
At the top of the stretch, Velazquez lowered and Hernandez leaned as Fierceness opened 2 daunting lengths after a mile in 1:36.06. In white-tipped gloves, Velazquez gradually ramped up his hand ride, tapped Fierceness once underhanded, a wave and a warning. Thorpedo Anna clawed but didn’t close, passing the eighth pole still down by 2 lengths.
It looked over. And then it wasn’t.
Nearing the sixteenth pole, Velazquez switched his whip to his left hand and stole a quick glance. Ears flat back, Thorpedo Anna was still there gaining inches. She needed feet. Hernandez waved his whip and kept pumping strides past the wire, hoping against hope.
Fierceness earned his fifth career win while Thorpedo Anna suffered her second career loss. The length of his head decided the difference after 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.79. Sierra Leone finished 1 3/4 lengths back in third. Dornoch faded to fourth. Batten Down hung on for fifth. Corporate Power failed to close ground in sixth. Unmatched Wisdom plummeted to seventh. Last early, Honor Marie finished last.
Owned and bred by Mike Repole’s Repole Stable, Fierceness improved his bankroll to $2,666,350 in eight starts.
Moments after winning the Jim Dandy at Saratoga July 27, Pletcher tempered Fierceness’ certainty for the Travers a month later. Citing his disturbing trend of win/loss/win/loss/win/loss/win, the Hall of Fame trainer wasn’t certain he wanted to throw the son of City Of Light right back into the fray. The morning after and the weeks following, Fierceness made the fray.
The day before the Travers, Pletcher was bullish.
“He’s given us total confidence that he’s sitting on go,” Pletcher said. “If you wouldn’t run this one the way he’s doing right now, you wouldn’t run too many of them. The way he’s training, I couldn’t be happier.”
Asked if he had ever had that feeling before a Travers, Pletcher didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah. Twice,” he said. “Flower Alley. Stay Thirsty.”
He smiled. Well, smirked. But he didn’t laugh.
Asked about it after the Travers, Pletcher backed it up.
“Like I told Mike the week of the Travers, ‘If the horse doesn’t run good the way he’s training, I don’t know,’ ” Pletcher said. “Your first thought after the Jim Dandy is, ‘Oh, the Travers is in four weeks.’ But my old boss used to always say, ‘Man, this horse is having the best week of any horse I’ve ever been around.’ And I kept thinking that this horse is having the best month of any horse I’ve ever been around. Like I told you, I remember having similar feelings with Flower Alley and Stay Thirsty. It’s like, if we can just keep them as good as they are, we’ve got a big chance.”
Fierceness backed it up with his second polished performance in a row. The bay colt won his debut here last summer and then finished seventh in the Grade 1 Champagne. Ortiz rode him in those two races. With Velazquez, Fierceness dominated the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure a 2-year-old championship. He began his 3-year-old season with a fumbled third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, then led every step of the Grade 1 Florida Derby. Sent off favorite in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, that went flat fast and he finished 15th. Pletcher skipped the Belmont Stakes and planned for Saratoga, still with something to prove.
“I did my best to defend him and point out what happened in the Holy Bull, which I honestly feel like was a legitimate excuse. The Derby is the Derby, and the Champagne, he got bounced around a little bit and taken out of his game in only his second start. So, there were subtle excuses,” Pletcher said. “There wasn’t a doubt, but it was more of a disappointment, a frustration, whatever you want to call it. I know the horse has tremendous ability and it was frustrating that he can’t do it every time.”
Pletcher and Velazquez won their first Travers with Flower Alley in 2005. Pletcher won it again with Stay Thirsty and Javier Castellano in 2011. Velazquez won it again with Code Of Honor and Shug McGaughey in 2019.
The go-to rider for Pletcher for decades, Velazquez doesn’t get the same opportunities from the high-powered barn these days. Pletcher and Repole made a decision before the Breeders’ Cup, putting Velazquez on Fierceness and Ortiz on Noted. Fierceness won. Noted finished last. And a relationship, a friendship came full circle.
“I don’t want to call it sad because it wasn’t a true breakup, it was a different relationship. We both went a little bit in our own ways for a little while there. He went to California and he had a lot of success with Baffert. And when he wasn’t here, we were obviously using some other guys and had success there, too,” Pletcher said. “But it was just interesting the way that this one played out. Literally on entry day for the Juvenile, Mike and I decided to go to Johnny. He had worked him the one time, loved him. It was just a gut feeling, we felt like it was a good fit, his style and the horse’s style. If you look at his last two races, that’s what Johnny does so well.”
Get a position. Make a decision. Play chess when others are playing checkers.
Back behind the jocks’ room after the Travers, Velazquez finished a press conference in English and an interview in Spanish and then hugged his 21-year-old son Michael. A long, slow, pick-you-up-off-your-feet, train-is-leaving hug. Sure, both know that there won’t be many more of these.
“He knows that his old daddy is trying his best. I don’t know how long I’m going to do this. I’m going month by month, or year by year,” Velazquez said. “It’s more rewarding now. Everybody always knocks you for the age you are, but I showed them we can still do it. At 52, mentally and physically, I’m better than I was when I was 40. There is more pride to it because the opportunities aren’t coming very often now, you’ve got to take them when they come. Put it this way: Make it count. Make it count.”
Fierceness – and Thorpedo Anna – made it count.
