Trainer Fincher now breeder of Sunland Derby starter

Runaway Ghost gave former jockey Todd Fincher the biggest win of his Thoroughbred training career when he won last year’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby.

Hustle Up will attempt to give Fincher his biggest win as a breeder when he runs in the same race Sunday.

Hustle Up earned a shot at the Sunland Derby after he defeated open company in the local prep, the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby.

Hustle Up is a son of Abstraction, a winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes, and Fincher bred Hustle Up in partnership with Brad King. The horse was sold privately before the start of his racing career and Fincher has trained him all along for Dale F. Taylor Racing, Bobby McQueen, and Suzanne Kirby. He was New Mexico’s champion 2-year-old of 2018 and will be looking for his fourth straight stakes win in the Sunland Derby. A front-runner, Hustle Up is 8 for 10.

“He’s just almost what you call an anomaly,” Fincher said. “He’s been in training since October 2017 and hasn’t missed any training, never had soreness issues, which most horses will at some point have something to make them back off. He’s held his weight, matured some, and went about everything without any hiccups. It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s not like he’s a horse that lays back there and makes one run. He runs the whole race.”

Hustle Up is out of the mare Speedin Excess, who was a daughter of In Excess.

“He’s actually an orphan,” Fincher said. “The mare was really badly foundered. He was a couple months old when she died. He’s a big, pretty horse. They did a great job taking care of him.”

Hustle Up was bred in New Mexico and raised on King’s farm in Lubbock, Texas.

“Brad and I have been good friends since I started training,” Fincher said. “We partner up on mares and different stuff in the breeding business. That’s his forte, not mine.”

Fincher said the business plan calls for selling most of the horses the men breed.

Fincher and King also were the breeders of On The Lowdown, a half-brother to Hustle Up and the champion New Mexico-bred 2-year-old of 2017. The men also teamed with Fred Alexander as the breeders of Diabolical Dame, a 10-time stakes winner who earned $700,000.

“We breed some in Kentucky, but mostly in New Mexico,” Fincher said. “New Mexico has a great program.”

As for Runaway Ghost, Fincher said he is headed to Keeneland to run in the Grade 3, $250,000 Commonwealth on April 6.

“We just got flight arrangements,” Fincher said.