2018 Eclipse Awards: Finley'sluckycharm

Although her final two races were disappointing, there’s no question that 2018 and her entire three-year career were an unqualified success for Finley’sluckycharm, who is among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter for 2018.

Trained by Bret Calhoun for Carl R. Moore Management LLC, Finley’sluckycharm began her 5-year-old campaign with a runner-up finish in the only grass attempt of her career, the Mardi Gras in February at Fair Grounds. That race set the stage for one of her finest efforts: a nose decision in a four-horse photo on opening weekend of the Keeneland spring meet in the Madison, giving her what would turn out to be the lone Grade 1 victory of her career.

“She’s been so deserving of a Grade 1,” said Calhoun. “We’re so glad to get it here at Keeneland.”

Favored in her next start, the Grade 1 Humana Distaff on the rainy Kentucky Derby undercard at her home track, Churchill Downs, Finley’sluckycharm could do no better than fourth after contesting the pace to the upper stretch. Given a brief freshening, the mare then returned with the highest Beyer Speed Figure of her life: a 104 earned in a 2 1/4-length on-the-pace triumph at Saratoga in late July in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss, a race in which she had been narrowly defeated in 2017.

:: 2018 Eclipse Finalists: Profiles and photos for all categories

“Nice to come back and get it done,” Calhoun said afterward.

Back a month later at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Ballerina, one of the pivotal races in the division, Finley’sluckycharm faltered after setting the pace, finishing seventh as the third betting choice in a race won by Marley’s Freedom.

Calhoun then briefly considered running her back in early October at Keeneland in the Thoroughbred Club of America – a race she won in 2017 – before deciding to train her straight into the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill. Finley’sluckycharm finished seventh in a full field of 14.

Finley’sluckycharm ended the year with two wins and a second from six starts for earnings of $334,700. In all, she won 11 of 19 and earned $928,068.

Brian Hernandez Jr., who rode Finley’sluckycharm in the mare’s last 15 races and often was aboard for her morning breezes, had nothing but praise for her.

“She was a true professional in every sense,” said Hernandez. “She’s one of the special fillies.”

Finley’sluckycharm, a dark bay mare by Twirling Candy out of Day of Victory, by Victory Gallop, was bred in Kentucky by the Lakland Farm of Lewis Lakin. Entered in the Fasig-Tipton sale on the Sunday after the Breeders’ Cup, she was purchased as a broodmare prospect for $1.5 million by Japanese breeder Katsumi Yoshida.