DEL MAR, Calif. - Let’s run it back in 2025.
While the Breeders’ Cup definitely is returning to Del Mar next year - Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 - there is the real possibility that the one-two-three finishers from Saturday’s $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic will attempt to make it back here as well.
Add in Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Thorpedo Anna and Dirt Mile victor Full Serrano returning to run in 2025 with the Classic as a potential goal, and the possibilities are endless for next year’s Classic.
A decision regarding Sierra Leone’s future is yet to be finalized. In the winner’s circle following the Classic, his connections gave indications that Sierra Leone, a 3-year-old son of Gun Runner, could return in 2025.
On Sunday, trainer Chad Brown said Sierra Leone would be shipped to Ashford Stud in Kentucky for a little break while his owners - the Coolmore connections that include John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith - as well as Peter Brant and Brook Smith decide the colt’s future.
“We’ll just cross our fingers and hope he comes back to our barn and the whole racing world can see him next year,” Brown said.
Brant and Smith expressed their desire to run Sierra Leone again in 2025, though Smith said the decision would not be made by him.
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“If they say it’s time to go to the [breeding] shed, I’ll high-five everybody and say thank you beyond my wildest dreams,” Smith said Sunday morning. “If they decide to race him, I’ll be there on the rail.”
Brown as well as jockey Flavien Prat certainly want to see the horse return as a 4-year-old.
“Prat said to me after the race I hope they keep him in training because this horse is just getting better, he’s just so mature now mentally, he’s going straight,” Brown said.
The inability to maintain a straight course earlier in his career likely cost Sierra Leone the Kentucky Derby, a race he lost a by nose to Mystik Dan. Sierra Leone didn’t keep straight in the Belmont Stakes or Jim Dandy either, races he lost. He did run straight in the Travers, but could manage only a third-place finish behind Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna.
On Saturday, taking advantage of a fast pace, Sierra Leone was able to outfinish Fierceness and win the Classic by 1 1/2 lengths.
“He ran about as good as a horse could run,” Brown said.
Sierra Leone earned a 112 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance.
Sierra Leone and Fierceness split four decisions this year. Before Saturday’s Classic win, Sierra Leone was second in the Derby while Fierceness finished 15th. Fierceness beat Sierra Leone in both the Jim Dandy and Travers at Saratoga
Fierceness will return to training in 2025, owner Mike Repole confirmed Sunday. Fierceness, who will retire to Ashford when his career is finished, will get a brief break in Kentucky before joining trainer Todd Pletcher at his winter base at Palm Beach Downs in Florida.
That Fierceness was able to hold second in the Classic after contesting a hot early pace - they went the half-mile in 44.96 seconds and six furlongs in 1:09.44 - led Pletcher to say, “you can argue he ran as good as you could run. When they threw up that 44.96 I thought ‘this is going to be too taxing.’
“What I was most impressed with was inside the eighth pole, sixteenth pole, he dug in and kept fighting,” Pletcher added. “He ran a gallant race in defeat.”
Given his record-setting 13 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in March, a race like the $3 million Pegasus on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park is a likely first target for Fierceness. There is also the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh on Feb. 22 as a possible early season target.
Forever Young, third in the Classic, was scheduled to return to Japan on Monday. Kate Hunter, a Breeders’ Cup liaison for the Japan-based horses, said Forever Young is expected to run next year with the hopes of returning for the Classic.
Trainer Ken McPeek said Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Thorpedo Anna would spend about 30 days at Magdalena Farm in Lexington, Ky., before heading to Fair Grounds, where she would be based this winter.
McPeek said Thorpedo Anna would be nominated to the Saudi Cup, but more likely she would stay racing against her own gender at least to begin 2025. A race like the Beholder Mile, typically held at Santa Anita in the second week of March, could be where her 4-year-old campaign begins. McPeek won that race in 2021 with Swiss Skydiver.
Races like the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn in April and the La Troienne at Churchill in May could also be on the docket for Thorpedo Anna in the first half of 2025.
Asked about the possibility of facing males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, McPeek said, “if she was running the table against the fillies and mares we’d consider the Classic next year.”
Thorpedo Anna’s victory in the Distaff was her fifth Grade 1 of the year, four of them coming against 3-year-old fillies. She also won the Grade 2 Fantasy. Thorpedo Anna’s lone loss in 2024 came when she faced males in the Travers, losing by a head to Fierceness, but finishing 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Sierra Leone.
Thorpedo Anna likely is the leader for Horse of the Year, with Sierra Leone arguably her closest competitor,
“Didn’t she beat him? That’s all I got to say,” McPeek said. “It’s up to others. We’re proud of her.”
In 2010, Zenyatta won five Grade 1 stakes against females, lost the Breeders’ Cup Classic by a head to Blame - her first career defeat in 20 starts - and was name Horse of the Year.
Full Serrano could be a horse to watch for in 2025. He closed out the Breeders’ Cup card with a 1 1/2-length victory in the Dirt Mile. It was his second win from three starts - all at Del Mar - since being acquired by Kosta and Stephanie Hronis and turned over to John Sadler.
Full Serrano returned to Santa Anita on Sunday and Sadler said he’s interested in running in a race like the Pegasus in January and possibly a trip to the Middle East thereafter.
In his lone defeat for him, Full Serrano was beaten a half-length in the Pacific Classic. Sadler would like to get back to that race and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2025.
“That’s what we’re hoping, he ran long races down there in South America and he ran well here at a mile and a quarter,” Sadler said.
A lot can - and will - happen between now and next November, but the possibilities are intriguing.
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