Photo:

Gary Johnson / Eclipse Sportswire

The 2023 champion juvenile male and current Breeders’ Cup Classic contender Fierceness will take up stud duties at Ashford Stud at the
end of his already outstanding career on track, Coolmore announced Sunday.

A runaway winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa
Anita, Fierceness dominated in the Grade 1 Florida Derby winning by 13 1/2
lengths and proved himself among the best 3-year-olds in the country by putting
one of the deepest fields in recent years to the sword in the Travers (G1).

Breeders’ Cup Classic & Distaff Sunday notebook.

Fierceness in name and Fierceness by nature, he showed both
class and determination to defy multiple Grade 1 winners such as Thorpedo Anna,
Dornoch and Sierra Leone.

A son of the promising young sire City of Light and a grandson
of top-class Quality Road, Fierceness is out of Nonna Bella, who is a sister to
Wood Memorial (G1) winner Outwork.

“Fierceness hails from a young and hugely exciting family of
his owner-breeder Mike Repole,” Ashford Stud manager Dermot Ryan said. “He is
an outstanding physical and has proven himself to be a champion on the dirt at
both 2 and 3 years. We’re tremendously excited to welcome Fierceness to Ashford
be it this year or next. We will discuss his future with Mike, (trainer) Todd (Pletcher)
and the team following what looks to be the race of the year in the Breeders’
Cup Classic.”