Finest Work does everything right to take Hettinger Stakes
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When Finest Work first arrived in his barn earlier this year, trainer George Weaver felt the filly would benefit from shortening up in distance. While she did win twice at seven furlongs, Finest Work showed she can go long as well, putting in a nice run from mid-pack to win Friday’s $125,000 John Hettinger Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on turf at Aqueduct.
Finest Work, under Manny Franco, held off a late run from Marvelous Maude, the 8-5 favorite, to win by a half-length. Marvelous Maude is the only filly to beat Finest Work this year in five starts.
Those five races all came for Weaver, who was given the horse by owner Ted Hoover. Finest Work was in the barn of Parx-based trainer Harold Wyner, but, as Finest Work is a New York-bred, Hoover wanted the horse with a New York-based trainer.
“I’m lucky it ended up being me,” Weaver said.
Weaver felt that any success Finest Work would achieve would be if she could learn to relax early in her races. That’s why he initially cut her back from 1 1/16-mile races to seven furlongs.
“She was pulling, not relaxing, I thought cutting her back to seven-eighths we could drop her head and get in a nice rhythm,” Weaver said.
After winning two statebred sprints, Weaver stretched Finest Work out to 1 1/16 miles in open company. In her first start, she was beaten a length by Marvelous Maude before coming back on Sept. 10 at Monmouth to win an open allowance by 2 1/2 lengths.
Weaver told Franco on Friday the key to Finest Work getting 1 1/8 miles would be if he could get her to relax “whether you’re on the front end or wherever you’re at,” Weaver said,
Franco had Finest Work in fifth, six lengths behind Vienna Code, who set fractions of 23.40 seconds for the quarter and 48.37 for the opening half while being stalked by Make Mischief. Entering the turn, Franco launched his bid on Finest Work and though she had to go four wide into the lane, she was able to overtake Make Mischief in upper stretch and hold the late running Marvelous Maude at bay.
“By the three-eighths pole I felt they were coming close to me, I gave her her head a little bit,” Franco said. “She was making her move a little early, but at the same time that was the move I wanted to do because I wanted to get the jump on the other one. I knew the mile and an eighth was going to be a little far for her but we made it.”
Finest Work, a daughter of Outwork, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.50 and returned $18.80 to win.
Weaver, who splits his stable between Saratoga and Belmont Park, said Finest Work has always trained better at Belmont and noted that his assistant, Blair Golen “has done a great job with the filly,” Weaver said
Finest Work will likely come back in the $200,000 Ticonderoga here on Oct. 30.
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