After dropping her first two career starts, Finite has looked a star in the making in her past couple outings for trainer Steve Asmussen. She and seven other two-year-old fillies will vie for their first graded stakes win Saturday in the $300,000 Golden Rod (G2) at Churchill Downs.
The Golden Rod, part of Churchill’s 12-race Stars of Tomorrow II card devoted exclusively to juveniles, is also a 2020 Road to Kentucky Oaks series prep which will offer Oaks qualifying points of 10-4-2-1 to the respective top four finishers.
Twice second at the Saratoga, Finite put it all together with a wire-to-wire graduation over the grass at Kentucky Downs on September 12, and followed up with a similarly impressive romp in the $120,000 Rags to Riches on opening day of the Churchill fall meet. The combined margin of victory for both was more than 10 lengths.
Finite is by Munnings and out of a multiple stakes-winning full sister to Tapiture, whose graded stakes tallies included the 2013 Kentucky Jockey Club (G2), which will also be renewed Saturday.
In addition to that filly and Rags to Riches runner-up Lady Glamour, the field also includes Bean, who looks to rebound from a November 8 allowance in which she lost her jockey soon after the start. Bean was the 7-5 favorite that day off a second in the $100,000 Presque Isle Downs Debutante and can fare better.
Turtle Trax won the aforementioned 6 1/2-furlong allowance involving Bean by nearly three lengths and stretches out following back-to-back wins for trainer Ian Wilkes. His Glory, second in the Pocahontas (G2) two back, was a 4 1/2-length allowance winner over Motu on the Stars of Tomorrow I card over the Golden Rod distance.
The field is rounded out by last-out maiden winners She Can’t Sing and Ivyetsu. The former was particularly impressive when dominating her foes by more than seven lengths in her first dirt try, though she crawled early setting a slow pace.
