Fincher has New Mexico set for Breeders' Cup redemption

This time, New Mexico is getting serious about the business at hand.

Until now, the state’s breeding industry had Ricks Natural Star as its lone representative at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. It was not represented well.

Ricks Natural Star was entered in the 1996 Turf at Woodbine even though he had never competed on grass. He had not run on any surface for more than a year. His appearance was apparently something of a lark for owner-trainer Dr. William Livingston, a veterinarian from Artesia, N.M., and it was hardly surprising when the impossible longshot was “distanced” by the world’s best turf runners.

New Mexico-breds Slammed and Senor Buscador, both trained by veteran Todd Fincher, have credentials to make the state much prouder two and a half decades later. At the least, there is no questioning whether they belong.

Slammed had to earn her way in because she was not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup. Owners Barbara Coleman, Brad King and Suzanne Kirby were required to supplement her for a $200,000 fee. She all but paid her way when she roared off by 6 1/2 lengths in the $350,000 Thoroughbred Club of America (G2) for jockey Florent Geroux to secure a fees-paid berth in the Filly & Mare Sprint. Her $179,025 share of the purse all but covered the cost of supplementing.

Senor Buscador locked up an expense-paid berth in the Dirt Mile by winning the Oct. 1 Ack Ack Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. The race was part of the “win and you're in” series.

Four-year-olds Senor Buscador and Slammed provided Fincher, 51, with the second and third graded-stakes wins since he opened his training operation in 1998. To some degree, he feels as though he is playing with house money.

“They’ve already made me proud,” Fincher said. “Both are doing well. Both are legitimate contenders in my mind. I don’t think they are also-rans.”

They were unraced at 2. They are testaments to the patience of Fincher and their owners. Texas-based Joey Peacock, Jr., who owns Senor Buscador, said of Fincher: “He will absolutely not do anything that is not in the best interests of the horse.”

Senor Buscador has endured various setbacks, including an injury to a hock in a stall accident that may have been related to a severe storm that swept through New Mexico one evening. He has done well through seven starts, however, winning four of them while earning $376,677.

Fincher wishes the son of Mineshaft, out of the New Mexico-bred mare Desert Rose, had been able to compete more often. But he said, “Everything is rolling really good right now and he’s able to reach his peak.” Franciso Arrieta, who earned his first graded-stakes win in the Ack Ack, retains the mount after the connections rejected bids from some big-name riders.  

Slammed, a bay daughter of Marking out of Hennesey Smash, is a New Mexico-bred top and bottom. She has swept 9 of 12 starts with $557,030 in earnings. She had been touting herself even before the Thoroughbred Club of America.

She slipped at the start of the Aug. 28 Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) at Del Mar and lost valuable time while she gathered herself. She still missed by only half a length to Edgeway, a runner-up in last year’s Filly & Mare Sprint.

While Fincher and other trainers in New Mexico and the surrounding area wish they could lay hands on elite horses more often, Fincher sees positive aspects to his location.

“There are advantages to running at smaller tracks with younger horses. People don’t realize it,” he said. “You can run against weaker competition and build your horse up and make a progression with your horse.

“But when you run in Kentucky, to use a football analogy, you’re playing against Georgia or Alabama every week. It’s hard racing those horses and when they’re young, it’s a little tough on them.”

Fincher is confident he and his staff have done everything possible to have Slammed and Senor Buscador ready for the stage New Mexico horsemen sought for so long.

“It’s horse racing. A lot of bad things can happen,” Fincher said. “If good things happen, they have a good chance to win. Both of them.”

That would turn Ricks Natural Star into a distant memory. As he should be.