Fierceness, Mentee Unique as Same-Year BC Starters

Repole Stable brings a rare opportunity to this year's Breeders' Cup, a chance for racing fans to watch full siblings perform in championship races on the same weekend.

Fierceness , who has been pre-entered in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), and Mentee , who has been pre-entered in both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T), are both sons of Lane's End's City of Light   out of Mike Repole's homebred winner Nonna Bella .

If they start in their respective races during Breeders' Cup weekend Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar, they will become the eighth pair of full siblings to race during the world championships in the same year.

The first pair of full siblings raced during the second Breeders' Cup event in 1985 at Aqueduct Racetrack where Earl Scheib's homebreds Fran's Valentine and Earl's Valentine ran in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), respectively. The sisters were by group 1-placed stakes winner Saros, who Scheib acquired and raced in the United States beginning in the summer of 1978 and later stood at KingsWay Farm in California. Scheib also raced the sisters' dam, stakes-placed Iza Valentine, from 3 to 5 in the name of his Green Thumb Farm Stables.

The second and third sets of full siblings to contest the Breeders' Cup in the same year yielded the only pairs so far to include a winner.

In 1988, Ogden Phipps' homebred Personal Ensign captured an epic edition of the Breeders' Cup Distaff over that year's Kentucky Derby (G1) victress Winning Colors but the winner's brother Personal Flag finished sixth in the Breeders' Cup Classic. The siblings were by homebred stallion Private Account, and are the only graded stakes winners produced by homebred Grecian Banner.

The next siblings competed in 2006 when Frank Calabrese's homebred Dreaming of Anna won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and earned honors as the year's champion 2-year-old filly. Full brother Lewis Michael, however, would finish 11th in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). These siblings are by Rahy out of the grade 3-placed stakes winner Justenuffheart, also the dam of Justenuffhumor (Distorted Humor), who ran third in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T).

Only one pair of full siblings has ever competed in the same Breeders' Cup race, which occurred in the second running of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in 2008 when the race was a listed stakes. Owner/breeder Joseph LaCombe raced brothers Slew's Tiznow, who was 3, and Slew's Tizzy, who was 4. They finished 10th and 11th, respectively.

Fierceness is the third foal out of Nonna Bella, a daughter of Repole's multiple grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty   who now stands at Lovacres Ranch in California. The mare was bred to City of Light because Repole had just purchased shares in the son of Quality Road   and pedigree adviser Ed Rosen had been impressed with Dunbar Road , a grade 1 winner by Quality Road out of a Bernardini mare.

"We were looking at what was working with Quality Road," Rosen told BloodHorse in an interview last year. "(Dunbar Road) is out of a Bernardini mare. Stay Thirsty is by Bernardini, so it is not real scientific, but it seemed that cross was working with a filly that was exceptional."

Fierceness was such a good-looking foal—rated among the best foals produced at Lane's End in 2021—that Nonna Bella went back to City of Light and produced Mentee.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said he first saw Mentee at an Ocala training center in March of the colt's 2-year-old year.

"He is a nice colt but a different colt than Fierceness. He is a bit on smaller side and is shorter-coupled with different muscle tone but still a nice-moving horse," he said. "One thing we found that was similar, once we got him in, is his disposition; he's laid-back, easy to train, and has a good mind."

Mentee won his racing debut June 15 during the Belmont at the Big A meet at Aqueduct. He next ran sixth in the Hopeful Stakes (G1), prompting a reevaluation and consideration of the six-furlong Futurity Stakes (G3T) on the grass at Aqueduct.

"I don't hold the Hopeful against him because we didn't have a great schedule in between," Pletcher said. "He didn't run badly but didn't run as well as we had hoped. We had had it in our minds to try him on the turf and the Futurity was an attractive spot at six furlongs. Quite a few of the City of Lights we've had have taken to the turf, so we gave him a breeze on it. Clearly, he took to it really well."

They zeroed in on the Futurity, which Mentee won by 3 1/2 lengths and earned an automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup because the race is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

"We liked the way he ran and the way he rated, and were encouraged enough by it and the way he galloped out that the Juvenile Turf was the next logical target," Pletcher said. "He is doing really well. We have not ruled out putting him back on the dirt at some point, probably in the spring, but for right now we're focused on the Juvenile Turf."

City of Light's runners have shown great versatility with six of 10 black-type winners to date finding success on the grass, including grade 2 winner Formidable Man  and multiple grade 3 winner Chop Chop . The sire has turf influences throughout his family, particularly under his second dam, grade 1 winner Fabulous Notion, who also ran third on the turf in the 1983 Del Mar Oaks (G2T). The mare is a half sister to Cacoethes, winner of the 1990 Turf Classic Handicap (G1T) at Belmont Park and 1989 King Edward VII Stakes (G2) during Royal Ascot and third in the 1989 Epsom Derby (G1).

Whatever the Breeders' Cup races yield, Repole said he proud to see two such accomplished runners representing his program.

"Having a breeding program that is producing homebred graded stakes winners is surreal," Repole said. "Nonna Bella is a great mare, producing this dynamic duo. This goes back 15 years ago when I raced her sire Stay Thirsty and her dam Nonna Mia, who is named after my beloved grandmother. It's extremely special."