Fincher wonders which Sheriff Brown will show up in Sunland Park Handicap
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Sheriff Brown, who will attempt to win the $100,000 Sunland Park Handicap for the second year in a row on Sunday, likes to keep trainer Todd Fincher guessing.
The earner of more than $500,000 has run some exceptional races – and then there have been some real head-scratchers. Fincher has learned to take each race in stride. He’s not making any performance predictions about the horse heading into the 1 1/8-mile closing-day feature Sunday.
“It just depends on what sheriff shows up,’” Fincher said. “It might be Sheriff Brown. It might be Barney Fife.”
Sheriff Brown pulled something of a Fife – the character Don Knotts played on “The Andy Griffith Show” – when a distant fourth in the $75,000 Curribot on March 5 at Sunland.
“It’s not surprising,” Fincher said. “He throws a clunker every once in a while.”
Sheriff Brown has since worked back brilliantly, going five-eighths in a bullet 58.60 seconds on March 19 at Sunland. He will break from post 4 in the field of six on Sunday, with Luis Fuentes aboard for Peacock Family Holdings.
Sheriff Brown, who is a half-brother to Grade 3 winners Senor Buscador and Runaway Ghost, is a three-time stakes winner who figures to be making his case in the later stages.
“He’s never going to be on the lead the first quarter,” Fincher said.
Last year, Sheriff Brown closed from more than 20 lengths off the pace to win the Sunland Park Handicap.
Mine That Star could show the way. The half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is stretching back out around two turns after a six-furlong start in the Fort Bliss on Jan. 29 at Sunland. He ran fourth in the race that marked his first out since November.
Mine That Star’s last win came at two turns in the Veterans in October at Zia Park. Last year, he set the pace in the Sunland Park Handicap and finished fourth. Ken Tohill, coming off a win in the Grade 3, $600,000 Sunland Park Derby aboard Wild On Ice, has the mount from post 3. Nancy Summers trains Mine That Star for Judge Lanier Racing.
Mine That Star is co-highweighted at 124 pounds with Zestful. Sheriff Brown is weighted next at 123.
Zestful was a stakes winner on turf last month at Turf Paradise. One start prior, he won on dirt. He will be looking for career win No. 16.
Another leading contender, weighted at 121 pounds, is Limonite, who set the fractions in the Curribot before finishing second to Senor Buscador. Senor Buscador won by four lengths that afternoon and his next start is to be determined, according to Fincher. He said the horse’s options include the Oaklawn Handicap.
◗ The Sunland Park Chaplaincy has been coordinating a fundraising effort by which fans have been buying raffle tickets for items like trips to Del Mar and Ruidoso. The monies raised were to have been donated Saturday to jockey Jorre Scriver, 21, and exercise rider Bryce Bourdieu, 19, according to a press release from Sunland. Both riders have extensive medical bills after incurring serious injuries.
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