Finley'sluckycharm starts cranking up for 2018 campaign

NEW ORLEANS – Finley’sluckycharm, among the top older female sprinters during 2017, when she won three graded stakes, had her first work of the winter when she went an easy three furlongs in 38 seconds Sunday.

Finley’sluckycharm ended last year’s campaign with a below-form Breeders’ Cup showing, finishing ninth in the Filly and Mare Sprint, but trainer Bret Calhoun is pointing her to the 2018 Filly and Mare Sprint, which will be run over a Churchill Downs surface Finley’sluckycharm loves.

Calhoun said he plans to run Finley’sluckycharm around the first week of March, then point her to the Madison at Keeneland and the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs.

“After the Breeders’ Cup, we kept her in the barn, gave her some time, freshened up,” he said. “We put a few two-minute clips in her, then went an easy three-eighths.”

◗ Wonder Gadot, the 3-year-old filly cross-entered Saturday in the Lecomte and the Silverbulletday, is nearly certain to face her own sex in the Silverbulletday, trainer Mark Casse said Tuesday. “Unless there are major scratches in the colt race, [owner Gary Barber] would prefer to run in the filly race,” Casse said.

◗ The featured eighth race (4:35 p.m. Central) Friday at Fair Grounds is a second-level turf-mile allowance with a $40,000 claiming option, and, on paper, it is wildly competitive. Turbo Street is the likely favorite dropping from a pair of stakes races, including a win in the Remington Green, but has no decided edge on any number of rivals.