Back at the top of her game, Finite faces Baffert foursome in La Brea Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. – Early in the year, before the world turned upside down, Finite was at or near the top of the 3-year-old filly division. Then, like for many others, things went awry for her.

After Finite suffered a stunning loss as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks – which ended a five-race win streak – and with the postponement of the Kentucky Oaks by four months, trainer Steve Asmussen hit the reset button. She was off for nearly six months, and even her return – which came on turf at Kentucky Downs, where she beat maidens last year – didn’t go well. But since then, she’s looked like the Finite of old.

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Finite was a narrow loser of the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland before a dominating victory against elders in the Grade 3 Chilukki last time out at Churchill Downs. On Saturday, an hour before stablemate Nashville goes in the Grade 1 Runhappy Malibu, Finite will make her first bid at a Grade 1 in the $300,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.

The La Brea is at seven furlongs, the same distance as the Raven Run and a furlong shorter than the Chilukki, a one-turn mile. Though Finite has multiple wins going two turns, she has earned the best two Beyer Speed Figures of her career – 96 and 93 – in her last two starts, competing as a late-running sprinter. Perhaps it’s the distance, perhaps natural development, but she’s clearly in top form for her West Coast debut.

She’ll need to be at her best, because the La Brea came up one of the most competitive races of the blockbuster opening-day card. Eleven are entered, including a quartet from Bob Baffert’s barn, none named Gamine, who is being freshened after securing the female sprint title with her Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint victory. The La Brea goes as race 8 on the 11-race card and kicks off a sequence of three straight Grade 1 races.

“It’s just good to have her back,” Asmussen said of Finite in a telephone interview earlier this week. “It was good to see her back in the winner’s circle after what’s gone on this crazy year. Just an unprecedented time. Nothing went according to plan.

“In her comeback at Kentucky Downs, the weather was nasty and she lost her action in the going. But her two races since then have been very good. She ran well in the Raven Run, and followed that up beating older mares in the Chilukki.”

Ricardo Santana Jr., 5 for 9 aboard Finite, is in for the ride.

Baffert’s quartet is led by Merneith, who won the Fort Springs at Keeneland in her stakes debut to kick off Breeders’ Cup Saturday on Nov. 7, earning a Beyer Figure of 86. Merneith starts from post 2, with John Velazquez riding.

Next to her, in post 3, is the Baffert-trained Himiko, making her stakes debut after two straight victories against lesser, most recently defeating stablemate and La Brea rival Provocation in a first-level allowance at Del Mar.

Provocation has come back to train well in company with Himiko and gets Joel Rosario for the first time Saturday.

Baffert’s fourth runner is Golden Principal, cutting back to a sprint after a first-level allowance win at Del Mar going a mile, which followed a runner-up finish to Merneith in a sprint here in October.

“It’s a Grade 1, lot of nice fillies, but no Gamines in there,” Baffert said.

The lightly raced Motivated Seller, second to Merneith in the Fort Springs in her third start, heads west for Chad Brown, who said he was “kind of on the fence” regarding shipping her.

“I was aware Bob was going to run the filly that just beat her,” he said, referring to Merneith. “I’m normally not one to go right back against a horse that just beat her. The more I looked at it, if [Merneith] is one of the favorites, she just beat [Motivated Seller] not by a whole bunch, it’s a rare opportunity for a Grade 1, so I should probably go. With some of the bigger names in that division resting now, that’s what ultimately made my decision to go. She’s got a reasonable chance to hit the board.”

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Fair Maiden was fourth to Merneith and Motivated Seller in the Fort Springs.

Secret Keeper and Stellar Sound are intriguing bounce-back candidates.

Secret Keeper was eliminated in the Raven Run by a stumbling start. Freshened since, she returns to the track where she won her debut in May. Trainer Cliff Sise Jr. has a 30 percent strike rate with horses off between two and six months.

Stellar Sound made a bizarre mid-race move going long at Los Alamitos earlier this month in the Grade 3 Bayakoa and emptied out. The La Brea has been her target since an allowance victory in October that marked her first start in nearly eight months and her first for trainer Michael McCarthy.

The speedy Biddy Duke and longshot Princess Mo complete the field.

– additional reporting by Brad Free