Finite scares ‘em off in short Fair Grounds Oaks field

Photo: Hodges Photography/Amanda Hodges Weir

Just five fillies were signed up to take on Finite in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks, and that’s plenty understandable given the steps forward she’s taken into the peak of Kentucky Oaks prep season.

A Steve Asmussen-trained daughter of Munnings, Finite shows five straight victories, four of them in stakes company after she broke her maiden last September on the Kentucky Downs turf.

Campaigned in partnership with Winchell Thoroughbreds, Finite gained respect by winning Churchill Downs’ Rags to Riches, then stretched her speed around two turns in the Golden Rod (G2). Off a narrow victory in Fair Grounds’ Silverbulletday, she then hit another level when last seen, drawing off to take the Rachel Alexandra (G2) by 4 3/4 lengths.

In Finite’s wake was the reigning 2-year-old champion British Idiom, who wasn’t entered in the Fair Grounds Oaks. Presumably, she’s a candidate rather for Keeneland’s Ashland (G1) on her way to the first Friday in May — or, whenever they run Churchill Downs’ signature race for fillies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finite will likely head to post as an odds-on favorite for the 1 1/16-mile Fair Grounds Oaks, which offers qualifying points toward a trip back to Churchill on a 100-40-20-10 scale to the top-four finishers.

From the outside post with Ricardo Santana Jr. to ride, Finite will face one familiar rival in Tempers Rising, a Dallas Stewart trainee who ran third in the Silverbulletday and fourth in the Rachel Alexandra. Others in the field each enter off wins at lower levels than they’ll race at Saturday.

Antoinette is the other stakes winner in the field with the Bill Mott trainee having taken an off-the-turf edition of Aqueduct’s Tepin Stakes last out. But it’s Juddmonte Farms homebred Bonny South who may pose the bigger threat to Finite. She exits an allowance win over Brad Cox stablemate Shedaresthedevil, and that one returned to win last Saturday’s Honeybee (G3) at Oaklawn Park.

Maiden winner Stop Shoppin Tammy and French Rose, a starter optional claiming winner at Santa Anita, round out the field.

The Fair Grounds Oaks goes as Race 11 of 12 on the card, with post time 5:15 p.m. ET. The Louisiana Derby (G2) for Kentucky Derby hopefuls closes the program.