Finite Goes for Six Straight in Fair Grounds Oaks

Finite will aim to extend her five-race winning streak March 21 when she faces five rivals in the Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G1) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

After breaking her maiden at Kentucky Downs in September, the Munnings  filly wrapped up her juvenile season with wins in the Rags to Riches and Golden Rod (G2) stakes at Churchill Downs. She returned this year in New Orleans to win the Silverbulletday Stakes and Rachel Alexandra Stakes Presented by Fasig-Tipton (G2).

Owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds, Thomas Reiman, William Dickson, and Debbie Easter and trained by Steve Asmussen, Finite is a leading contender for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and tops the leaderboard with 70 points. However, the Kentucky Oaks trail remains in flux. On March 17, Churchill Downs announced the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) was postponed until Sept. 5 and the Kentucky Oaks until Sept. 4 because of safety concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I just look at it as the reason they invented the asterisk," said David Fiske, the manager of Winchell Thoroughbreds. "I don't know why we would be any different than the NCAA Tournament or The Masters tournament, or NASCAR, or Major League Baseball, or anything else. Everybody's inconvenienced. I don't care when they run them, I just want to win them. I think the record books for us and any other sport are going to be filled with asterisks after this year."

Fiske said Finite's Silverbulletday performance gives him confidence heading into Saturday's race. Though Fiske thought it was Finite's worst race, the filly battled two other horses and came away with a neck victory.

"She just didn't seem to be herself in the paddock that day or in the post parade. She's usually pretty calm, laid-back, takes everything in stride. That day, she was very agitated, anxious, on her toes, amped up," Fiske said. "She was trying to pull Ricardo (Santana Jr.) down the backside—that and the fact that she was three wide on the first turn and three or four wide on the second turn and still managed to grind out the win. … If that was her worst race, then we're in pretty good shape."

Set at morning-line odds of 3-5, Finite drew the outside post and will again be ridden by Santana.

Bonny South, another Munnings filly, will make her stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile race. The Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Brad Cox was awarded the win in a maiden special weight at Fair Grounds following the disqualification of O Seraphina, one of the horses at Fair Grounds to test positive for levamisole. Bonny South moved up to allowance-level company Feb. 15 and rallied from seventh to win by three-quarters of a length running 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park.

"She got a really good speed figure out of the Oaklawn race, and I think it is very comparable to (Finite)," Cox said. "If she can get a good trip and move forward a little bit, I think this filly is going to make some noise. I've always liked her."

Godolphin homebred Antoinette, trained by Bill Mott, enters off a victory in the Dec. 5 Tepin Stakes, a one-turn mile at Aqueduct Racetrack. That effort followed a 1 1/16-mile maiden win on Belmont Park's inner turf.

Rounding out the field are Tempers Rising, who was fourth in the Rachel Alexandra and third in the Silverbulletday, French Rose, and Stop Shoppin Tammy.

Entries: Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2)

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, March 21, 2020, Race 11

• Grade II
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $400,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 4:15 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Antoinette (KY)	Junior Alvarado	122	William I. Mott	12/1
2	2French Rose (KY)	Mitchell Murrill	122	J. Keith Desormeaux	20/1
3	3Tempers Rising (KY)	Julien R. Leparoux	122	Dallas Stewart	9/2
4	4Bonny South (KY)	Florent Geroux	122	Brad H. Cox	4/1
5	5Stop Shoppin Tammy (KY)	Corey J. Lanerie	122	Philip A. Bauer	8/1
6	6Finite (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	122	Steven M. Asmussen	3/5