ASHFORD Stud’s Justify (Scat Daddy) was centre-stage at Santa Anita on the first evening of the Breeders’ Cup when he sired a back-to-back Grade 1 double, thanks to his daughters Just F Y I and Hard To Justify.

Just F Y I won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt, while success for Hard To Justify came on the turf.

The George Krikorian-owned and bred Just F Y I was the subject of a lengthy analysis recently in this column following her win in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, so now I will just take a look at Wise Racing’s Hard To Justify.

Bred by Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals’ Yeguada Centurion, Hard To Justify was sold to her racing owners for $190,000 at Keeneland last year, and he is the third Group/Grade 1 winner bred by that entity in 2023, joining multiple classic and Group 1 winner Blue Cen Rose and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Big Rock.

Hard To Justify is now unbeaten in three starts, and prepared for her victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with a win in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes. Yeguada Centurion purchased the dam of Hard To Justify, the graded stakes-placed Instant Reflex (Quality Road), carrying a colt, Quick Reflex (Arrogate), for $300,000. The colt failed to sell as a yearling, went to Spain where he won at Madrid last December by 10 lengths.

Instant Reflex is a granddaughter of the US stakes winner Slow Down (Seattle Slew), and she is also the third dam of the Group 1 July Cup winner Starman (Dutch Art), and that Tally-Ho Stud sire is represented at the upcoming sales by his first foals.

Fierceness

Two of the five Grade 1 races at this year’s meeting were on dirt, and Fierceness (City Of Light) took the honours in the most valuable of them, the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where all but one of the runners were US-trained.

Mike Repole had the great pleasure of not only owning the winner, but he bred the Todd Pletcher-trained colt also.

Twice-raced before his tilt at the Grade 1, Fierceness was impressive on his debut before disappointing connections on his second start. They retained their faith in him, and were duly rewarded. This win came 13 years after the same connections won this race with Uncle Mo.

Fierceness is the first runner for his dam, Nonna Bella, a dual winner by Stay Thirsty (Bernardini). She is one of three winners from Nonna Mia (Empire Maker), a $200,000 Saratoga yearling buy by Repole, and named in honour of his grandmother. Nonna Mia was a talented runner, and though she did not win at stakes level, she was placed in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes.

Mated with Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie), she bred the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Outwork, now a dual Grade 1 sire, his juvenile daughter winning this year’s Spinaway Stakes.

Nonna Mia is among seven winners out of the Canadian stakes winner Holy Bubbette (Holy Bull), and the best of these was Cairo Prince (Pioneerof The Nile). He gained his biggest success in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes and Nashua Stakes, and he is the sire of almost 30 stakes winners, four of them gaining their biggest wins at Grade 2 level.

City Of Light

The stud fee for City of Light (Quality Road) was recently set for 2024 at $35,000, a big drop from $60,000. Might the team at Lane’s End reconsider this in light of Fierceness’s win, and a possible champion title?

Fierceness is the sire’s first Grade 1 winner, and he is a member of that four-time Grade 1 winner’s second crop. The initial crop contains six stakes winners, just one at graded level, accounting for the decline in his fee. Perhaps he has turned a corner, and it is clear that Mike Repole will use him more.

City Of Light didn’t run at two, and though he won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at three, he was best at four, and in one start at five. His Grade 1 victories at four included the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, while that single run and win at five was in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup International Stakes.