page_title: Fierement
section_title: 2018: three-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: Fierement / Racing career / 2018: three-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: English: Takahisa-Tezuka20111218 日本語: 手塚貴久
context_page_description: Fierement, is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. Unraced as a juvenile he won his first two starts as a three-year-old before running second in the Radio Nikkei Sho and the winning the Grade 1 Kikuka Sho on his final appearance of the year. In the following spring he finished runner-up in the American Jockey Club Cup before recording his second Grade 1 success in the spring edition of the Tenno Sho.
context_section_description: Fierement did not race as a two-year-old, beginning his track career on 28 January 2018 when he won an event for previously unraced three-year-olds over 1800 metres at Tokyo Racecourse. Over the same distance at Nakayama Racecourse in April he won again as he took the Yamafuji Sho, beating Nishino Baseman and nine others. On 1 July the colt was stepped up in class and started the 1.5/1 favourite for the Grade 3 Radio Nikkei Sho over 1800 metres at Fukushima Racecourse. Ridden by Shu Ishibashi he raced towards the rear of the field and turned into the straight last of the thirteen runners. He made rapid late progress overtaking all but one of his rivals to finish second, half a length behind the winner Meishi Tekkon. Takahisa Tezuka later commented that the colt was unsuited by the track.
  After a break of three and a half months Fierement returned in the Grade 1 Kikuka Sho over 3000 metres at Kyoto Racecourse on 21 October in which he was ridden by Christophe Lemaire and started at odds of 13.5/1 in an eighteen-runner field. Blast Onepiece started favourite, while the other contenders included Etario, Epoca d'Oro (Satsuki Sho), Generale Uno (St Lite Kinen), Meisho Tekkon, Grail (Kyoto Nisai Stakes), Time Flyer (Hopeful Stakes) and Stay Foolish (Kyoto Shimbun Hai). Generale Uno set a steady pace from Kafuji Vanguard and Cosmic Force with Fierement settled in seventh place before threading his way through the field as the runners fanned out on the final turn. Etario, ridden by Mirco Demuro, hit the front in the straight but Fierement joined him 200 metres and got the better of a closely contested finish to win by a nose. After the race Lemaire said "I had confidence in him as he felt good during the training. We briefly met traffic in the straight but my mount stretched really well with his bursting kick. I congratulated Mirco right after crossing the wire, thinking that we had lost, so it's unbelievable that we were able to win the race".
  In the 2018 World's Best Racehorse Rankings Fierement was rated the 21st best three-year-old colt in the world and the 118th best horse of any age or sex.
caption: Fierement's trainer Takahisa Tezuka
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