Southwest horseman Fincher brings unbeaten Senor Buscador to Risen Star

None of the trainer Todd Fincher’s 6,000-plus starters have raced at Fair Grounds. Fincher is a New Mexico horseman. His stomping grounds are Albuquerque, Ruidoso, Sunland, Zia. He breaks yearlings at a facility not far from Sunland, which sits along the Rio Grande outside El Paso. But Fincher has been given good reason to travel farther afield the last several months. The reason is a colt named Senor Buscador.

Fincher never had raced at Remington Park, either, until late last year, but it was there that Senor Buscador scored a flashy debut win in a maiden race before coming back with an especially eye-catching victory in the Springboard Mile on Dec. 18. He’ll be Fincher’s first Fair Grounds runner when he starts Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes, and there are real hopes Senor Buscador can take Fincher and owner Joe Peacock Jr. to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.

Senor Buscador, who rallied from last to win the Springboard Mile by nearly six lengths, is part of the Kentucky Derby Futures Wager pool this weekend and among the 20 horses in Daily Racing Form’s first Derby Watch of 2021. He got a 93 Beyer Speed Figure in the Springboard Mile, and Fincher believes the 1 1/8 miles of the Risen Star will suit Senor Buscador.

“I haven’t been overly hard on him” since the Springboard Mile, said Fincher, who has been training Senor Buscador at Sam Houston Race Park. “I let him come down off that big race and then let him build back up again, start the progression over. The distance I don’t think will be a problem for him. Obviously, not running in two months then going a mile and an eighth will be a little tougher, but he hasn’t missed a day.”

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Graded stakes being in short supply down New Mexico way, Fincher has only one such win during a training career that followed a jockey career and began in 1998. That victory came in 2018, when Runaway Ghost won the Sunland Derby and was slated for a Kentucky Derby start before an injury derailed that plan.

Runaway Ghost, by Ghostzapper, is a half-brother to Senor Buscador, with both horses out of Rose’s Desert. Like Senor Buscador, Rose’s Desert was bred and owned by the Peacock family and trained by Fincher, and she won seven New Mexico stakes. Fincher has broken and trained all four of Rose’s Desert’s foals. Senor Buscador, by Mineshaft, is a different type than Runaway Ghost.

“All the siblings have great personalities,” Fincher said. “Runaway Ghost, he was much more aggressive than this horse. [Senor Buscador] just does what you asked him to do. He’s still young; he’s a May 6 foal. He’s not overly tall, 16 [hands], maybe 16-1, real long, heavy, but a toned kind of heavy.”

Senor Buscador dropped straight to the back of the field in both his Remington races, but Fincher doesn’t believe the colt has to run that way. “He knows how to leave the gates,” he said.

Luis Quinones was aboard for the two 2020 starts and has the mount again Saturday. Senor Buscador, however far back he drops, figures to come running late. Maybe he’ll keep on going, taking Fincher and the Peacocks all the way to Kentucky this time.

◗ Defeater will be scratched from the Risen Star in favor of a Saturday allowance race, trainer Tom Amoss said. Amoss does plan to run Carillo in the Risen Star. Carillo, a debut winner in New York for trainer Chad Brown, was purchased as part of the Paul Pompa Jr. dispersal late last year.

◗ Dalika was cross-entered in Saturday’s Albert Stall Memorial and in the Mardi Gras Stakes on Tuesday, but will stay in the Saturday race provided it isn’t rained off turf, trainer Al Stall said.