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.
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DRF Past Performances
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Keepmeinmind, the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner who had been entered in the Risen Star on Saturday at Fair Grounds, will remain home and run in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Wednesday.
The Southwest has been rescheduled from Monday to next Saturday, Feb. 20, because Oaklawn has canceled racing Saturday to Monday due to a forecast for frigid weather.
Brad Cox grew up just two blocks from the back gate at Churchill Downs, close enough to espy the twin spires with a quick walk, or hear the roar of the crowd in the afternoon when the races were being run. The racing bug bit him early, and never left.
Essential Quality
Tapit – Delightful Quality, by Elusive Quality
Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin
Tapit, among the most successful sires in modern classic history, has three individuals in the first Derby Watch Top 20 list. That trio is led by Godolphin’s homebred Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and Eclipse Award champion Essential Quality, already a multiple Grade 1 winner around two turns.
Nine new names are in the lineup for Pool 3 of the 2021 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens at noon Eastern on Friday for the customary three-day run.
The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, has been pegged as the 7-2 morning-line favorite in Pool 3 by Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia, with Essential Quality and Life Is Good the shortest individual interests, both at 8-1. Then come Caddo River (12-1), Greatest Honour (15-1), and Risk Taking (15-1), with all others 20-1 or higher.
Highly regarded 3-year-olds Jackie’s Warrior and Midnight Bourbon on Monday at Fair Grounds had their final workouts for stakes engagements this weekend. Both colts are trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen but are on divergent paths.
Midnight Bourbon already has had a 2021 start, winning the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds, and he went a half-mile Monday in a moderate 50.20 seconds preparing for Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes in New Orleans.
Grade 3, $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Tampa Bay Downs, Feb. 6, 2021
(10 Derby qualifying points for first, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth)
Winner: Candy Man Rocket, by Candy Ride
Trainer: Bill Mott
Jockey: Junior Alvarado
Owner: Frank Fletcher Racing Operations Inc.
Beyer Speed Figure: 85
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After lengthy consideration as to whether to give Fire At Will a shot on the Kentucky Derby trail, trainer Mike Maker has decided to switch the winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf off the grass and run him in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.
Maker said Fire At Will “went super” when breezing five furlongs early Saturday in 1:01.60 over a fast Gulfstream main track.
“It looked like he handled it well,” said Maker.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said he is inclined to keep Candy Man Rocket and Nova Rags separated as they proceed down the Kentucky Derby trail after the colts finished one-two Saturday in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs.
Mott told Tampa publicity Sunday he is likely to run one of his Sam Davis runners back in the March 6 Tampa Bay Derby, the annual marquee race at the Oldsmar, Fla., track, while diverting the other to a different spot.