April 26, 2024

Finite returns from extended break in Music City at Kentucky Downs

Finite wins the Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs 2019
Finite wins the Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs (Coady Photo/Churchill Downs)

Finite reeled off four consecutive stakes wins after breaking her maiden by more than four lengths at Kentucky Downs last season. On Sunday, the one-time Kentucky Oaks (G1) prospect is back in southern Kentucky and on turf for the $400,000 Music City S., a 6 1/2-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies.

Back in action nearly six months after her Oaks quest was derailed after an odds-on fourth in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2), Finite faces a salty group in her return to action. Cutting back in trip is another Kentucky Downs grad, Enola Gay, who captured the Appalachian (G2) in July but was a weakening fifth as the favorite in last month’s 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Oaks.

Kimari entered and scratched from the Prioress (G2) last week and was reportedly expected to do so also from a Grade 3 at Kentucky Downs on Saturday to point here. The Wesley Ward trainee is a multiple stakes winner who’s acquitted herself nicely in a pair of excursions to Royal Ascot, most recently finishing second there in the June 18 Commonwealth Cup (G1) against males.

She’s My Type and Bredenbury have both won sprint stakes in New York this summer, with Miss J McKay not far behind them. Lighthouse invades from Southern California where she just missed winning the Daisycutter H. at Del Mar against older fillies and mares.

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The $500,000 TVG S., for fillies and mares at 1 5/16 miles, has come up with a short field. The rightful even-money favorite on the morning line is Grade 2 veteran Mrs. Sippy, who narrowly lost the Aug. 8 Waya (G3) in her first race back since the Breeders’ Cup last fall.

If she scratches from a stakes at Woodbine on Saturday, Dance Smartly (G2) heroine Theodora B. could prove dangerous as the lone apparent speed on paper.

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The $400,000 Untapable S., for 2-year-old fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs, appears wide open with a number of last-out debut winners likely to take some sort of action. That group includes Lady Goldstart, Red Ghost, Lady Edith, La Libertee, and Emro. The Steve Asmussen-trained Mad Maddy, meanwhile, looks to snap a four-race streak of seconditis.