Asmussen marks stakes milestone as Finite takes Silverbulletday

NEW ORLEANS – Finite’s fourth win in a row, a hard-fought neck victory in the $148,500 Silverbulletday Stakes, marked a milestone for her trainer, Steve Asmussen, who became only the third trainer to win at least 1,000 stakes races.

Asmussen joined Todd Pletcher and Wayne Lukas in the select group and did so with a filly bred and owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds. Ron Winchell helms Winchell now after taking the reins from his father, Verne. Asmussen’s father, Keith, broke Verne Winchell’s racehorses long before Steve even began training.

“It’s extremely satisfying to do this with a Winchell homebred. It’s been a long association,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen has brought a long line of high-level 3-year-old fillies through the Fair Grounds stakes program, too. Untapable and Summerly, Asmussen’s pair of Kentucky Oaks winners, both campaigned here during the winter before going north to Churchill Downs.

The top four Silverbulletday finishers earned Kentucky Oaks qualifying points: 10 to Finite, four for runner-up Ursula, two for third-place Tempers Rising, and one for fourth-place Portrait.

Ursula set a moderate to slow pace, going 24.23 seconds, 48.72, and 1:13.64 while making her first two-turn start. She fought back fiercely when Finite confronted her and ran with the heavy favorite to the wire.

“When they headed her, she dug in even harder,” jockey Mitchell Murrill told trainer Mike Stidham.

Tempers Rising also ran well in defeat – at least as well as the top two – and was finishing fastest after rallying from seventh into the pokey pace, beaten just a head by Ursula.

“Everything is coming together now with her,” said trainer Dallas Stewart.

Portrait loomed four paths wide at the quarter pole and briefly looked like a winner but flattened out late and probably doesn’t want to run this far. She was followed across the finish by His Glory, Pass the Plate, She Can’t Sing, and Maga Suite.

Finite ran 1:42.73 and paid $3.20 to win. Her victory Saturday came after a maiden win at Kentucky Downs, a romping score in the one-turn mile Rags to Riches Stakes at Keeneland, and a three-quarter-length win in her two-turn debut, the Grade 2 Golden Rod, run over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs last November.

“The Golden Rod was very similar to this race,” said Asmussen. “They had their chances with her and couldn’t get by.”

Finite raced three paths wide without cover most of the trip and probably was slightly overeager down the backstretch. She worked hard to get past Ursula and stayed brave to hold clear Tempers Rising’s surge.

“I think that was a pretty good run today. Three-wide behind 24-and-change here is not ideal, but somehow, she wins with the trip. Just very proud of her – she’s very much of a professional racehorse,” Asmussen said.

Finite is by Munnings out of Remit, by Tapit; she’s a sister to multiple stakes winner Reride, something of a miler, and her dam is a sister to the multiple graded stakes-winning sire Tapiture. Asmussen said Finite, all being well, will return Feb. 15 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes. By then, her trainer will be headed for his second thousand stakes wins.