Finley'sluckycharm finds redemption in Honorable Miss

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Finley’sluckycharm washed away the memory of a tough loss in last year’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap by winning this year’s $200,000 Honorable Miss by 2 1/4 lengths Wednesday at Saratoga.

Perched outside a slow-breaking Vertical Oak, Finley’sluckycharm responded to jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.’s right-handed urging in the lane to pull away in the final sixteenth for her 11th victory in 17 career starts. She has now earned $913,068 for owner Carl Moore.

A year ago, in the stretch run of this race, Finley’sluckycharm had her connections thinking they were headed to the winner’s circle only to see Paulassilverlining battle back and win by a neck.

“Thought we already had the trophy in our hands and got it taken away from us,” trainer Bret Calhoun said about last year’s Honorable Miss. “Nice to come back and get it done.”

The victory also was a good bounce-back performance for Finley’sluckycharm following a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs. Calhoun felt that Finley’sluckycharm hadn’t fully recovered from a tough race in winning the Grade 1 Madison four weeks prior at Keeneland.

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Calhoun wants to run Finley’sluckycharm back in 31 days in the Grade 1 Ballerina here on Aug. 25.

“If you’re going to come back in four weeks, you don’t want a gut-wrenching race if you don’t have to,” Calhoun said. “I thought things went as well as they possibly could. The pace wasn’t super hot, she was able to sit outside and save [energy], push the button later and cruise home.”

It wasn’t a complete cruise to the wire. Hernandez had to get after Finley’sluckycharm to edge away late from Vertical Oak, who broke awkwardly before making the lead under Ricardo Santana and running fractions of 22.52 seconds for the quarter and 45.00 for the half.

In the stretch, Hernandez had Finley’sluckycharm a couple of paths off of Vertical Oak.

“I thought I put Vertical Oak away easily, but she kept coming back at us,” Hernandez said.

Finley’sluckycharm, a 5-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy, covered the six furlongs in 1:09.48 over a track rated good and returned $3.90 as the 4-5 favorite.

Vertical Oak finished second by 9 1/4 lengths over Kirby’s Penny. Thirteen Songs and Faypien completed the order of finish. Chalon scratched.