She's So Fine finds tough spot for return

She’s So Fine went 1 for 12 to begin her career before moving to the barn of trainer John Toscano Jr. She has since won 5 of 6, and at Aqueduct on Friday will return from a seven-month layoff in a third-level optional-claiming sprint for fillies and mares.

Toscano claimed She’s So Fine for $40,000 out of an eighth-place finish at Aqueduct in November 2016. Seven weeks later, he brought her back for $20,000. She won by more than 10 lengths and, as one might expect, hasn’t run for a claiming tag since.

She’s So Fine returned to win a $50,000 starter race, then took a first-level optional claimer. Next up was a 3 3/4-length score in the $80,000 Karakorum Elektra on New York Claiming Championships Day.

Following a runner-up effort in a second-level allowance, She’s So Fine won her most recent race, a third-level optional claimer on May 26. She has earned $210,000 for owner Ben Mondello.

“She’s the best I’ve ever claimed,” said Toscano, who has been training since 1979. “Her form didn’t warrant her being this good. When we took her, she just looked like an ordinary horse.”

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She’s So Fine had made nine consecutive turf starts before the claim. She has raced on dirt ever since.

“She’d been running on the grass and she’s by Haynesfield,” Toscano said. “He wasn’t a turf horse, so I said, ‘Let’s try her on dirt,’ and that’s what I think she’s responded to.”

She’s So Fine, who will turn 5 on Jan. 1, made 18 starts in 17 months before going to the sidelines.

“The day she finished second, the only time she lost for us, she flipped in the paddock and hurt her shoulder,” Toscano said. “She wasn’t right after that. She’s been good to us and we decided to give her the time.”

Since this is She’s So Fine’s first layoff, it’s difficult to know if she will need a race to be at her best. Toscano, 73, expects her to run well.

“She has given me every indication she is ready to run a good race,” he said. “I sure hope so. We have bigger and better plans if she’s up to it.”

The seven-furlong race is not an easy spot for She’s So Fine. Her five rivals include Friend of Liberty, who is coming off a second-level optional-claiming win for Michelle Nevin. The 89 Beyer Speed Figure she earned is the highest last-race number in the field.

Also entered are A Place to Shine and Bombshell, who finished second and third at this level at Parx last time out for Ben Perkins Jr. and Jimmy Jerkens, respectively.

The field is completed by Heavenly Score, a second-level optional-claiming winner who will be moving to the main track after five turf starts for John Terranova, and Dawn the Destroyer, who will be racing a level above her eligibility conditions for Kiaran McLaughlin.