Fincher running the barn on New Mexico Cup Day

Trainer Todd Fincher will be running 18 horses on the $2 million New Mexico Cup program Sunday at Zia Park, but most of the public’s focus will be on just two of his starters: Bryn’s Fancy Pants and Sippin.

Both fillies are undefeated, with Bryn’s Fancy Pants attempting to run her record to 6 for 6 in the $140,000 Oaks and Sippin out to make it five in a row in the $140,000 Lassie.

The races are part of a program of 12 stakes for New Mexico-breds. There are eight races for Thoroughbreds and four for Quarter Horses. The New Mexico Cup is the richest card of the meet, and a stable objective for Fincher.

“We aim for this months and months in advance,” he said. “I’ve got mostly New Mexico-breds in my barn. This is the biggest day of the year for us, no doubt about it.”

Fincher’s runners rise to the occasion on a regular basis. Last year, for example, Diabolical Dame won her sixth straight race in the Oaks. She’s back again to lead the $140,000 Distaff Sprint, which goes as the second race and the first on the card for Thoroughbreds.

The six-furlong Oaks for 3-year-old fillies goes as the fifth race. Bryn’s Fancy Pants enters off a New Mexico-bred allowance win Oct. 3 at Zia. In her first since July, she rallied for a 1 1/4-length win under regular rider Alfredo Juarez Jr.

“She actually ran a really flat race the other day,” Fincher said. “I partially undertrained her to be peaking for this race. She still had the will to win. It got her much better and much tighter, and she looks like she’s peaking again now at the right time.

“When you have a horse like her, you don’t get to run them very much. You can’t keep them at their peak all the time. You have to let down, build back up, and that race was part of the building process for this one. Hopefully, we’ve built her up for a peak performance this time.”

Bryn’s Fancy Pants is a daughter of Southwestern Heat who races for Dale Taylor, his son Carey and his son-in-law Jon Hogg. She is a three-time stakes winner who has won her five races by a combined margin of 18 1/2 lengths.

“She really lays down and runs when you ask her,” Fincher said.

Sippin, whose four wins have come by a combined margin of 17 1/4 lengths, will be seeking her third consecutive stakes win in the six-furlong Lassie for 2-year-old fillies. She will be moving back into New Mexico-bred company after taking the $50,000 Permian Basin on Oct. 10 at Zia.

“She’s a very talented filly,” said Fincher, who trains Sippin for her breeder, R.D. Hubbard. “We don’t even know what her talent level is. We have not got to the bottom of her yet – don’t know how up the upside is. She’s a big, strapping filly with a great mind. She’s had some bad trips and has always found a way to the wire first.”

Sippin, by the Swiss Yodeler stallion Swissle Stick, will break from post 2 under jockey Tracy Hebert.

The draw is not ideal, said Fincher, but he noted she won from inside posts at Ruidoso.

The richest offering for Thoroughbreds on Sunday is the $180,000 Classic, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up. Probable favorite Proceed meets 11 others, including Fincher trainees Atillas Gift and Hush’s Storm. The field also includes Mr. Wizard, who won the race by 5 1/4 lengths in 2015.

Proceed, who won the Classic in 2014, is stepping back up into the stakes ranks after winning an allowance prep Oct. 4 at Zia. The start was his second of the year, and he defeated a handful of his Sunday opponents while earning this field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, an 80.

Ken Tohill has the mount from post 9 for owner Michael Stinson and trainer Joel Marr.

◗ Marr also will attempt to win the program’s richest race for fillies and mares when he sends out Zasha and Desert Stepper in the $170,000 Peppers Pride.

◗ Not My Note enters the $170,000 Sprint in sharp form, having won his last two starts, including the Pony Express at Albuquerque.

◗ Stormin the Jewels seeks his third stakes win of the year in the $140,000 Derby.

◗ Fincher trainee Ignored is riding a two-race win streak into the $140,000 Juvenile.

◗ Running Dragon, who is 6 for 7, leads the $310,143 Futurity, the card’s richest offering for Quarter Horses.