SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fierceness, Sierra Leone and Dornoch, the first-, third- and fourth-place finishers from Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga, all will be trained toward the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Del Mar, a race that will likely be the deciding factor in determining the 3-year-old male champion of 2024. Meanwhile, Thorpedo Anna, the fantastic filly who beaten a head finished second in the Travers, will return to her own gender and age group in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx Racing on Sept. 21 as a prelude to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 2. Thorpedo Anna, a three-time Grade 1 winner in her own division, is virtually a lock to be crowned champion regardless of what happens in her remaining two starts of the year. Fierceness, the 2-year-old juvenile champion of 2023, held off Thorpedo Anna in a stirring 155th renewal of the Travers. The race came back fast, with each horse earning a 111 Beyer Speed Figure, equaling the highest figure earned by any horse at any distance on dirt this year. Arthur’s Ride, a 4-year-old, earned that figure for an allowance win at Saratoga on June 7. The Travers victory gave Fierceness a second Grade 1 win on the year as he also captured the Florida Derby by a record-setting 13 1/2 lengths in March. After flopping as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, Fierceness was held out of the Belmont Stakes and has come back with victories in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Travers, the first time in his career that he has put together back-to-back wins. :: Gain a competitive edge at Saratoga with DRF's premier handicapping data — purchase our meet packages today and bet with confidence. “I know he’s too good a horse not to be able to put together back-to-back races,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who won his third Travers. “Just happy for him to validate the quality we always felt like he had.” Pletcher said watching Fierceness train during the four weeks between the Jim Dandy and Travers gave him confidence coming into the race that he would give a top effort. “I just felt like watching him train and the way he was doing leading up to it, man, if he doesn’t fire this time then I don’t know what to do,” Pletcher said. Fierceness will now have 10 weeks until the Classic. The horse had 12 weeks between the Kentucky Derby and his victory in the Jim Dandy. Fierceness did not rebound from the Derby in good enough order to run in the Belmont Stakes and Pletcher said after the race he believed skipping the Belmont led to the colt’s success this summer. Pletcher said Fierceness will remain in Saratoga for at least one month, but could possibly relocate to Keeneland in October before heading to California. Fierceness worked twice at Keeneland last fall before he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. Fierceness, with two Grade 1s and a Grade 2, has a similar resume as Dornoch, who has Grade 1 successes in the Belmont Stakes and Haskell and Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. His hard-fought victories in the Belmont and Haskell may have taken too much out of him to be at his best for the Travers, trainer Danny Gargan said Sunday. “I think he was just tired yesterday, he was flat,” Gargan said. “I thought he was sitting the perfect trip, I have no excuse. He fought two hard races, maybe I should have done less with him, who knows, he was flat.” Gargan said Dornoch will stay in Saratoga for the foreseeable future, but he will have a light training schedule in September, walking for a week and jogging for a week before resuming galloping. “Just freshen up,” Gargan said. For the third straight race, Sierra Leone came up short as the favorite, this time finishing third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna. Trainer Chad Brown said he was disappointed there wasn’t more early pace in the Travers - the half-mile was 48.10 seconds - and it was just too much for his late-running horse to overcome. “When you have a paceless race like that and a real champion horse in front of you that can run fast figures, it’s hard to overcome - and the filly ran super, too,” Brown said. “Those are the two best 3-year-olds, male and female. If you’re going to give them a head start and try to run them down, you’re going to have to be much the best to do it. Both the first- and second-place finishers really ran outstanding.” Sierra Leone's Travers defeat followed a second-place finish behind Fierceness in the Jim Dandy, and a third to Dornoch in the Belmont Stakes. “Exiting this three-race series it’s probably fair to say he’s not as effective at Saratoga, either, so I’ll just move forward with the horse, likely training him up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Brown said. “Hopefully, he’ll have a little bit stronger punch like he did at Keeneland and Churchill on a tighter surface. That’s what I’m looking forward to, and some more pace.” Brown also sent out Unmatched Wisdom, who finished seventh in the Travers. Brown expected that horse to be more forward, but said jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. told him he did not respond to his urging. “He did get up in his hind legs,” Brown said. “Irad said when he tried to go, he couldn’t move up, the horse wasn’t responding. We’ll leave that there and regroup.” Thorpedo Anna to Cotillion While the colts will wait 10 weeks for their next start, Thorpedo Anna will come back in four weeks as a likely prohibitive favorite in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies at Parx Racing on Sept. 21. “She likes to run,” trainer Ken McPeek said. “If I wait for the Distaff, I’m 10 weeks between races. She’s very capable of going over and doing her thing.” Thorpedo Anna did her thing in the Travers, falling just a head shy of Fierceness in a race that only confirmed her status as one of the best horses of either gender in training. Under Brian Hernandez Jr., Thorpedo Anna followed the move made by John Velazquez on Fierceness and made up most, but not all, of a two-length deficit she faced at the eighth pole. “I think you could have run the race four or five times and she could have definitely won it, but I think Fierceness ran the race of his life, he’s the winner for a reason,” McPeek said. “We did our job, I’m proud of the race. Obviously, we like winning, but look, that’s horse racing. It was a fun, fun day.” McPeek said returning to face fillies is the right thing to do, especially for a 3-year-old filly who would have to take on older rivals in either the Distaff or Classic. “I don’t see the Classic, we’ll look at it, do the math on who’s running,” McPeek said. “I see the Distaff as being a nice conservative move. I looked at the speed figures of the Personal Ensign” - a race for older fillies and mares won here Friday by Raging Sea - “and she’s every bit as good as that.” The Travers was just the second loss in eight starts for Thorpedo Anna, who also finished second in the Grade 2 Golden Rod last fall at Churchill Downs. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.