Ron Winchell’s influence, both direct and indirect, is conspicuous when sizing up the field for Saturday’s $150,000 Silverbulletday S. at Fair Grounds, a Road to the Kentucky Oaks prep that will award qualifying points of 10-4-2-1 to the top four finishers.
Finite, who Winchell bred and co-owns, will be a strong favorite in the mile-and-70-yard test following back-to-back stakes wins, including the Golden Rod (G2) at Churchill Downs, in which she earned 10 Oaks points.
That filly’s main rivals among the seven others in the field also have a connection to Winchell pedigree-wise. Portrait, who broke her maiden by more than 12 lengths at Ellis Park last summer and finished third as the favorite in the opening race of the Oaks series, the Pocahontas (G2) in September, is by Winchell’s homebred Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Tapizar.
Then there’s Ursula, who impressively broke her maiden early in the Fair Grounds meet and was most recently a distant second to the exciting Taraz in the 6-furlong Letellier Memorial last month. She’s by Winchell’s fabulous Tapit, the sire of Tapiture and also the broodmare sire of Finite.
Finite’s opposition also includes a couple Golden Rod also-rans, neither of whom produced their best on that wet afternoon in the slop. She Can’t Sing was previously a 7 1/4-length Churchill maiden winner over a fast track, while His Glory previously placed ahead of Portrait in the Pocahontas.
Testing her dirt prowess for the first time will be Pass the Plate, a winner of back-to-back races at 1 1/16 miles on the turf for Paul McGee.
The Silverbulletday is a prelude to the Rachel Alexandra (G2) and Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) later in the meet, both of which have yielded numerous Kentucky Oaks winners in recent years. Winchell and Asmussen have successfully been down this road before with Summerly and Untapable, so Finite’s performance will bear watching.
