Finite makes it five in a row in Rachel Alexandra Stakes

NEW ORLEANS – Finite’s fifth straight win was her best race yet, a 4 3/4-length thumping of Eclipse Award-winner British Idiom in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds.

Kept outside and in the clear by jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. while racing a couple lengths off the lead into the far turn, Finite cruised past pace-setting His Glory at the quarter pole and under strong urging steadily pulled away from her six rivals. She stopped the timer in 1:43.97 for 1 1/16 miles on a fast track, a time that compared favorably with the 1:43.40 the good older gelding Silver Dust had put up two races earlier in the Mineshaft Stakes.

British Idiom lost for the first time in four starts after winning all three of her races at 2, including the Grade 1 Alcibiades and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. British Idiom raced from sixth early and tried to make an outside bid in the homestretch, but never really found a good rhythm, finally besting Swiss Skydiver, who was head and head with the champion at the sixteenth pole, by 1 3/4 lengths for the place. Swiss Skydiver was a neck better than the one-paced Tempers Rising as the top four finishers split 85 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points 50-20-10-5.

:: To stay up to date, follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Steve Asmussen trains Finite ($7.40) for her breeder, Winchell Thoroughbreds, which owns the filly with Thomas Reiman, William Dickson, and Debo Easter. It was the fourth Rachel Alexandra win (the race used to be called the Silverbulletday, before which it had been the Davona Dale) for Asmussen and Winchell, and two of those horses, Untapable in 2014 and Summerly in 2005, went on to win the Kentucky Oaks.

Finite, a daughter of Munnings and Remit, by Tapit, started her career with a pair of second-place finishes in Saratoga dirt maiden sprints before beginning her current win streak in a maiden race over Kentucky Downs turf. She then won the Rags to Riches, a one-turn Churchill mile, by six lengths, the Grade 2 Golden Rod by three-quarters of a length, and the Silverbulletday here last month by a neck.

“Off a little bit of a freshening after the Golden Rod and before the Silverbulletday, I thought she was a little anxious in the paddock before the last race and ran well,” Asmussen said. “This time of year with the 3-year-olds, you need to be better next time, and she is better today than she was in the Silverbulletday. We’ll need to continue to improve to end up where we want, and that’s with her winning the Kentucky Oaks.”

Finite will make her next start, all being well, in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 21. That race isn’t set in stone, however, for British Idiom, who could alternatively head to the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. British Idiom got a break in Florida following the Breeders’ Cup and was making her first start in 3 1/2 months.

“It’s not easy to come back from a layoff,” said jockey Javier Castellano. “She ran a good race. We didn’t win that race today but next time I think we will. The other filly, she’d been running – fitness-wise, she beat us today. I think it’s going to be a different story next time with my filly.”

The story for Finite was the same one she’s been telling over and over for months – the delivery of a stakes-winning performance.