DEL MAR — For a horse with a record of bad starts and a history of disappointment at Del Mar, the Pacific Classic on Saturday started out like a hard-to-watch rerun.
Fierceness came out of the inside stall in the starting gate and soon took a left turn, looking as if he was going to jump over or crash through the temporary rail with jockey John Velazquez.
“Yeah, he had us a little worried there,” said Sophie Green, the assistant trainer who traveled with the New York-based Fierceness for the $1 million, Grade I Pacific Classic.
“I wasn’t very happy,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who’d watched the race on TV at owner Mike Repole’s house in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
If Green and Pletcher seemed to be speaking in understatements, maybe it’s because they knew how the drama turned out.
Fierceness more than recovered from his near-disaster, the 4-year-old using a heady ride by Velazquez to surge to the lead on the far turn and go on to a 3-¼-length victory that left the 3-year-old star Journalism second.
Fierceness paid $5.20 to win after going off as the bettors’ second choice behind 2-5 Journalism.
The Pacific Classic had lost some of its fizz when original morning-line favorite Nysos was scratched because of a hoof bruise, but it turned out to be a memorable edition of Del Mar’s marquee race.
At one point, it appeared the popular Journalism, last of the seven horses on the backstretch, would be able to catch Fierceness.
“I thought he ran very well,” said Michael McCarthy, Journalism’s trainer. “He was a little further off the pace than I thought he would have been, but they ran (a fast early pace).”
McCarthy said he didn’t think some bumping at the start ended up costing Journalism.
By the time Journalism and jockey Umberto Rispoli began passing other horses and taking aim at Fierceness with the rally that had won him the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness and Haskell Stakes, the leader had spurted clear by 2-½ lengths turning into the homestretch.
But Fierceness had been in that position before at Del Mar, leading in the stretch in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at the same 1-¼-mile distance as the Pacific Classic. That time, he had contested such a blistering pace that he had just too little left at the finish. He wound up second to Sierra Leone.
The 2024 Breeders’ Cup wasn’t the only bad memory for Pletcher and Repole in between Fierceness’ career high points, which include the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile victory at Santa Anita that clinched the 2-year-old championship and last year’s Travers Stakes win at Saratoga. Several times in big races, the son of City of Light had lost his best chance with troubled starts.
So imagine what his connections thought Saturday when Fierceness’ Pacific Classic took that unexpected turn.
“It almost felt like that again,” Green said in the winner’s circle, referring to the previous bad starts. “But Johnny knew exactly what to do, and kept him going, and that was it.”
Velazquez, the Hall of Fame jockey, yanked Fierceness back to a straight path and soon had him tucked in behind the leaders, sitting fourth while longshots Tarantino (who finished seventh), Midnight Mammoth (sixth) and Lure Him In (fifth) set the pace.
“He was going to go over the rail,” Velazquez said in the winner’s circle. “I had to get him out of there. But he overreacted by pulling in the other direction. But we got straightened out going into the first turn.”
At the end of the backstretch, Velazquez had to decide whether to continue to sit behind the leaders or shoot for the lead. Feeling Fierceness was keen to go on, he gave the colt his head and they quickly went between the other horses.
“I thought Johnny made a great decision when he split horses and went ahead and let him make his move a little bit early,” Pletcher said from New York.
Fierceness covered the 1-¼ miles in 2:01.00, making this one of the faster Pacific Classics.
The race had shaped up as one of the best of the 35 runnings of the Pacific Classic after Repole and Pletcher decided to ship Fierceness out from New York and lead owner Aron Wellman and trainer McCarthy opted to keep Journalism in California.
But it lost a bit of its luster when scratches for Saturday’s races were posted in the morning and Nysos’ name appeared. Responding to a reporter’s text, trainer Bob Baffert explained the scratch: “He came up with a bruised hind foot. Should be fine in a few days but not today.”
Baffert said the problem was spotted Saturday morning. He said the plan is to run Nysos in the Goodwood Stakes, a $300,000, Grade I, 1-⅛-mile race for 3-year-olds and up Sept. 27 at Santa Anita. That popular prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic is being called the Goodwood again after being the California Crown Stakes in 2024 and the Awesome Again in 2012-23.
Nysos had been the morning-line favorite at 8-5, ahead of 9-5 Journalism and 3-1 Fierceness. In a revised line, Journalism became the even-money favorite ahead of 8-5 Fierceness.
Bettors may have thought Fierceness was out of form after a fifth-place finish in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga in early August gave him his first two-race losing streak.
“He’d been training really well,” said Green, who arrived at Del Mar with Fierceness on Wednesday. “He’s a very laid-back horse, so you never know what he’s going to do.”
The start was a real surprise and the finish was a mild one, but it ended in the kind of celebration that had eluded Fierceness and his people before.
