SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Turning for home in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at sun-splashed Saratoga, Fierceness had put away Dornoch and the five other 3-year-old colts in the race, and by midstretch had opened up a two-length lead. But there was another challenge coming from a horse Fierceness had never previously met. Thorpedo Anna, looking to become the first filly in 109 years to win this historic Grade 1 race, had followed Fierceness into the stretch and, under Brian Hernandez Jr., tipped outside to make her run. In the final sixteenth of the 1 1/4-mile race, Thorpedo Anna was gaining with each stride, but she ran out of ground and came up just a head shy of Fierceness and John Velazquez in a Travers Stakes that lived up to the hype. Thorpedo Anna finished 1 3/4 lengths in front of 8-5 favorite Sierra Leone. It was 6 1/2 lengths back to Dornoch in fourth. He was followed by Batten Down, Corporate Power, Unmatched Wisdom, and Honor Marie. While the victory put Fierceness, last year’s 2-year-old champion, back in the hunt for divisional honors in the 3-year-old division, the result also may have raised the profile of Thorpedo Anna, who suffered her first defeat of the year after four wins, three of them Grade 1s, against her own gender and age group. :: Gain a competitive edge at Saratoga with DRF's premier handicapping data — purchase our meet packages today and bet with confidence. “You got to give the filly a ton of credit, that’s an amazing effort by her,” said Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Fierceness “She’s special.” Kenny McPeek, the trainer of Thorpedo Anna, had mixed emotions about the defeat. Initially he said “if you ain’t first, you’re last. I like trophies, not [finishing] second.” Then, asked if the result vindicated his decision to run her in the Travers, McPeek said “For sure. I said all along if she was third or better it was at least a moral victory. But she ran a winning race. I’m very proud of her.” The win in the Travers marked the first time Fierceness had put together two consecutive winning efforts in his eight-race career. Four weeks earlier, he beat Sierra Leone in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy. In the moments after that race, Pletcher and owner Mike Repole indicated they would skip the Travers because it was too close back. But the next day, and in the days and weeks afterward, Pletcher saw all the right signs from Fierceness to give the Travers a shot. What was the downside of running? If he ran poorly, that would only suggest he’d be ready to run big in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. “He doesn’t give you negative signs, but he had never given me so many positive signs leading into this race,” Pletcher said. “The way he was eating, his energy level, the way he was galloping, his breezes were super, he did them easily. Everything he was doing was giving me confidence to run him back in four weeks.” Saturday, breaking from the outside post in the eight-horse field, Fierceness raced fourth while three wide outside of Thorpedo Anna and sitting behind pacesetting Batten Down and the stalking Dornoch. With three furlongs remaining, Dornoch, under Luis Saez, poked his head in front, but Velazquez and Fierceness were immediately on the move. Fierceness took over in upper stretch and just had enough to hold off Thorpedo Anna as Velazquez brought him out to confront her near the wire. “I had to make a little premature move because I had Dornoch and decided [Saez] was already riding at the five-sixteenths pole,” Velazquez said. “I said if I get him now and try to keep the filly behind me and stuck behind him that would be great. The filly actually followed me out.” :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day. Velazquez said Fierceness got to waiting a little bit at the eighth pole. “I had to really get after him,” Velazquez said. “When the filly started coming, I went left-handed and he responded right way. When it was time to fight, he put up a really good fight.” Hernandez said he was getting the trip he wanted on Thorpedo Anna. “She traveled well for me the entire way,” he said. “Turning for home I was locked and loaded and I hopped outside. Fierceness got the jump on us but you have to be proud of our filly to make a big run at him like she did and she came up just a half a jump too late.” Fierceness, a homebred son of City of Light, covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.79, earning a 111 Beyer Speed Figure. He returned $9.80 as the third choice. Fierceness is a grandson of Stay Thirsty, who won the Travers in 2011 for Pletcher and Repole. Sierra Leone, sent off the 8-5 favorite, was able to stay a little closer in the early stages of the Travers than he had in his previous races. While he came with a run under Flavien Prat, Sierra Leone still came up short. He has now finished second in the Kentucky Derby, third in the Belmont, second in the Jim Dandy, and third in the Travers. “We had a good trip,” Prat said. “Turning for home, we had every chance and just couldn’t get by those two horses.” Dornoch, coming off hard-fought victories in the Belmont Stakes and Haskell, was flat according to trainer Danny Gargan. “He fought two hard races, I was worried, you can’t dogfight [every race],” Gargan said. “He didn’t have the kick he normally has. No excuse. He was in the perfect spot I thought. Luis said he was moving good, when he asked him he was a little flat. That happens.” Both Fierceness, who now has two Grade 1 wins this year, and Dornoch, also a two-time Grade 1 winner this season, will likely not run again until the Breeders’ Cup Classic. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Thorpedo Anna, McPeek said, will make her next start in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx on Sept. 21, and will then likely go to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. “I don’t see her going against the colts,” he said. Nobody is happier to hear that than Repole. “She is a really, really special horse to run against these boys the way she did,” he said. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.