Dejection turned to elation in a period of about five hours May 2 for owner Mike Repole.

Following the news of his Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve entrant Grande  being scratched from the May 3 classic just before 9 a.m. ET, Repole was in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs for another valued race in early afternoon, celebrating a track record-setting performance in the $750,000 Alysheba Stakes Presented by Sentient Jet from Fierceness. He co-owns the City of Light 4-year-old with Coolmore-affiliated partners.

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Fierceness ran in the Alysheba like the champion he was two years ago as a juvenile, defeating a short cast that included fellow graded stakes winners Most Wanted, Hall of Fame, and Locked. Fierceness further showed a professionalism that was at times missing during his 2-year-old season and the first half of his 3-year-old campaign, when he would alternate top performances with lackluster ones, typically after slow starts and becoming overly aggressive.

In his first start since a runner-up finish in the Nov. 2 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, Fierceness broke poorly Friday, as well, allowing Most Wanted an easy lead in the 1 1/16-mile Alysheba. Fierceness settled two lengths off the lead under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez behind quarter-mile fractions of :24.39 and :48.31 before kicking into gear with a wide bid on the second turn. He pulled within a half-length of Most Wanted after six furlongs in 1:11.11 and outsprinted him over the final five-sixteenths to inch away by 1 1/2 lengths over the runner-up at the finish.

“When I put him in the clear on the backstretch, he just really got into the bit and kept taking off,” Velazquez said.

Fierceness crossed the finish line in 1:40.66, lowering Successful Dan ‘s track mark of 1:41.04 set in the 2012 Alysheba Stakes. He paid $3.88 to win as the favorite.

“He’s a nice horse, and he showed it today. But, wow, a track record at Churchill Downs. That’s a really big deal,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

For a horse with numerous highlights — Fierceness was the champion 2-year-old male in 2023 and runner-up in voting for championship 3-year-old male honors last year — Friday’s performance seemed comparable to some of his best efforts from last year.

Repole and his family lead Fierceness to the winner's circle. (Eclipse Sportswire)

He went 3-for-6 in 2024, taking the Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa by 13 1/2 lengths, the Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun by a length over Sierra Leone, and the DraftKings Travers Stakes by a head over eventual Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.

“We know what he did in the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Repole said of Fierceness, who pushed a demanding pace before being overhauled by late-running Sierra Leone, “and to come back after six months and do that, it’s pretty special.”

Fierceness, a 4-year-old colt bred by Repole out of the Stay Thirsty mare Nonna Bella, improved his record to 6-1-1-1 in 10 starts and earnings to $4,315,320. Fierceness now races for Repole Stable, Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor, and Susan Magnier. He is to join the stallion lineup at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud at the end of his racing career.

Hall of Fame ran an even third, 2 3/4 lengths behind the runner-up. Fellow Pletcher trainee Locked, the Alysheba’s 7-5 second favorite, was fourth and never got on track as he did in winning the 1 1/4-mile Santa Anita Handicap Presented by Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in his preceding start. His jockey, Jose Ortiz, said the pace of the race and quick finish to the Alysheba made it difficult for late-running Locked to make up ground.

Repole saw it another way.

“Locked is a great horse,” Repole said. “Who’s the best horse in the older division? It’s Fierceness.”

The June 7 Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga Race Course may determine if Repole is right. Pletcher and Repole suggested Fierceness would be pointed to that prestigious $1 million contest, known as the Met Mile, a race also very likely to lure White Abarrio, who had soundly defeated slow-starting Locked in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in January.

Raging Sea Storms to Victory in La Troienne

She had already established herself as a dragon slayer with her top-level results a year ago. Now, after yet another conquest of a reigning champion, Alpha Delta Stables’ Raging Sea may be able to lay claim as the outright queen of the division she has repeatedly disrupted.

After defeating champion Idiomatic last summer to earn her first career Grade 1 triumph, Raging Sea added another Eclipse Award winner to her list of vanquished when she surged to a three-quarter-length victory in the $1 million Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes, a race that saw defending Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna put forth a shocking last-place finish.

Raging Sea winning La Troienne Stakes. (Eclipse Sportswire)

The image of Thorpedo Anna coming up empty in the stretch and fading to the back of the seven-horse field was a stunner, to put it mildly, given the way the 2024 Longines Kentucky Oaks winner had run through her divisional rivals for the better part of her career. The Ken McPeek trainee opened her 4-year-old campaign in typical form, winning the Azeri and Apple Blossom in handy fashion, and she hadn’t been defeated by a member of her own sex since running second in the Golden Rod Stakes beneath the Twin Spires in November 2023.

Raging Sea, however, is a different challenge than most Distaffers when she’s on her game. The 5-year-old daughter of Curlin won four of six starts last year to become a finalist for the Eclipse Award for champion older dirt female — ultimately losing to Idiomatic, whom she defeated in the Personal Ensign Stakes. Though she finished second to Thorpedo Anna in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff last November, trainer Chad Brown felt circumstances beat her that day as much as anything and wasn’t the least bit shocked to see the chestnut mare pull off another big-race moment in her seasonal bow Friday.

“I was really confident one of my two horses would win, nothing against the other fillies,” said Brown, who also saddled Grade 1 winner Randomized in the La Troienne. “I felt in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Raging Sea was really compromised. Thorpedo Anna had had a really long season, and I was hopeful in the Distaff that she wouldn’t run her absolute best race of the year. But there were so many scratches in the race, and there was no pace. So, I was looking forward to a little bit of a rematch here.”

Among the many reasons Brown has five Eclipse Awards for leading trainer on his mantel is he is a savant when it comes to bringing horses back off a layoff. Indeed, he had Raging Sea absolutely ready to strike when it became clear the dominant version of Thorpedo Anna wasn’t showing up.

Sent off at 4-1 odds, Raging Sea, with jockey Flavien Prat at the helm, settled back into fifth during the early going as stablemate Randomized took up her position on the lead between horses with Thorpedo Anna giving chase by the stands for the first time. As the field approached the first turn, longshot Dorth Vader  along the rail appeared to ping-pong into Thorpedo Anna, forcing the champion out and back into third.

“It looks like they beat her up going into the first turn. I don’t know what that was about,” McPeek said of the jostling. “I’m shocked like the rest of us.”

Though Thorpedo Anna recovered to get clear position and sit just off Randomized through fractions of :23.50 and :47.22, the daughter of Fast Anna began giving way as they came off the far turn. Her retreat coincided with Raging Sea finding her best run between her barnmate and a game Taxed, who was making her own upset bid, before edging clear for her eighth career victory.— Alicia Hughes