After the Auction: Fierce Boots

As an avid fan of sales with possible aspirations to become an adviser/bloodstock agent, auctions are one of my favorite topics to write about on Past the Grandstand. “After the Auctions” feature horses I selected in sales that have found success after the sale. These posts are generally just brief overviews of these horses’ racing records and pedigrees.

As one of my selections from book one of the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Fierce Boots was sold to famed chef Bobby Flay for $200,000. Sent to the barn of Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, Fierce Boots was prepared for a racing debut at the iconic Saratoga Race Course.

However, things did not go as planned when the bay filly made her debut in early August 2013. Lunging and bobbling at the break of the mile and one-sixteenth turf maiden special weight, Fierce Boots never gained the momentum she needed and crossed the wire fifth of sixth.

Although she remained at the maiden special weight level, Fierce Boots took what is viewed as a drop in class when she made her next start at Parx. Making her dirt debut, the filly settled off the pace before closing well to score by a half-length.

A return to New York saw her take on stakes company on the turf at Belmont, but the filly did not fare well, finishing eleventh of twelve. Returning to the dirt and exiting stakes company to run at the allowance level at Aqueduct, Fierce Boots gained late to be fourth, beaten just over three lengths.

Fierce Boots looked to redeem herself at the stakes level on January 4 in the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct, which was her first stakes attempt on the dirt. Relishing the dirt surface, the bay filly led from start to finish as she coasted to a two-length victory.

Pedigree Analysis

Fierce Boots is a daughter of Tiznow, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) winner who has ranked among the top thirty sires in North America for the past six years, ranking among the top five sires in 2008 and 2009. Among his offspring are the grade one winners Bullsbay, Colonel John, Da’ Tara, Folklore, Gemologist, Morning Line, Tiz Miz Sue, Tizway, Tough Tiz’s Sis, and Well Armed, as well as the grade one-winning steeplechaser Mr. Hot Stuff. Tiznow is also the sire of one of my grade one-winning sale selections, Strong Mandate.

The dam of Fierce Boots, Shop Again, was a stakes winner who has gone on to produce Power Broker – a grade one winner at two and a graded stakes-winning, grade one-placed runner at three. Fierce Boots is a half-sister to this earner of $865,612 and with inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Wild Again as her maternal grandsire, the filly shares her broodmare sire with the likes of the grade one winners Cheiron, Emma’s Encore, Macho Again, Mea Domina, Pyro, and Wild Spirit.

Shop Again is a half-sister to the grade one-winning Miss Shop, the graded stakes-winning Trappe Shot, the stakes-winning Bought in Dixie, and the graded stakes-placed Bulling. Through this female line, Fierce Boots is a direct descendant of the Reine De Course mare Lady Be Good, a multiple stakes winner who begat the stakes winners Discipline, Disciplinarian, and Full of Hope.