Fierce Pride flashes home for third in G3 Turquoise Stakes

Fierce Pride narrowly missed out on a dream victory on her G3 debut as she flew home to go down by a neck and a head in the Turquoise Stakes at Nakayama, Japan, on Saturday, 17 December.

The Deep Impact homebred, a Stakes winner over the same course and distance on her previous appearance, broke half a stride slowly in the mile handicap and was held up in a clear last of the 16 runners by Takuya Ono.

Fierce Pride still had all of her rivals in front of her turning in but the Sakae Kunieda-trained four-year-old quickened powerfully in the straight, hitting the line well to finish a close third behind Miss New York and Win Charlotte.

Harry Sweeney, President of Godolphin in Japan, said: “We are delighted that Fierce Pride has earned Graded Black Type on her very first attempt. She has been a very consistent performer for us in 2022, winning three out of five outings and has banked more than US$500,000 this year alone. It was a very good performance and jockey Ono gave her a very controlled ride considering that she was drawn widest of 16 and started slowly.

“Kudos to her trainer, Kunieda san, who has been very patient with her and who of course has trained many exceptional fillies such as Apapane and Almond Eye.

“Fierce Pride’s full-sister Soft Fruit, who placed third in the G1 Shuka Sho, has just been retired to join our broodmare band, so it is a very timely passing of the baton.”