Señor Buscador closes strong to win the Springboard Mile

Closing from last place more than 12 lengths off the lead, Señor Buscador (7-2) made up ground with powerful dash down the middle of the stretch Friday night to run away with the $200,000 Remington Springboard Mile, a Kentucky Derby points prep at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

Señor Buscador did not, however, pick up the winner’s 10 points toward Derby qualification, because he was on Lasix. Since all the 2021 classics will be Lasix-free, Churchill Downs added a rule this season saying no horse on the medication will be allowed to score points in designated preps.

“Definitely he will be coming off Lasix if he’s going on the Derby trail,” winning trainer Todd Fincher said in a text message to HRN. “The Fair Grounds is probably the next stop if all is well with the horse.”

With the 6 3/4-length victory, the 2-year-old Mineshaft colt ridden by 43-year-old México native Luis Quiñónez is now 2-for-2 with both starts coming this fall at Remington Park. He was bred in Kentucky by his owner Joe Peacock.

Coming off a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Cowan (7-2) made a late run to finish second and, because he was not on Lasix, was the only horse to keep his Derby qualifying points – in his case four. He was followed in third by Red N Wild (30-1) in a photo-finish just ahead of Saffa’s Day (9-1). Post-time favorite Outadore (7-5) faded from second to finish fifth.

Señor Buscador’s winning time was 1:37.87 chasing fractions of 23.52, 47.22 and 1:12.51.

“He broke bad, but he settled right in behind there,” Quiñónez told Remington Park TV. “When I started picking up and running through them, I thought oh, my God, what a horse I’ve got here. He came up strong in the lane.”

Fincher said that “except for the gate; he kind of walks out of the gate,” Señor Buscador looked more professional than he did in his winning debut over 5 1/2 furlongs last month.

“The first time we had run him, he didn’t know what was going on,” said Fincher, a first-time winner of the Springboard Mile. “He was just being as ornery as can be in the paddock, post parade, everything like that. Today? Much more serious. We still have a little work to go on that, but he was much more serious. He knew what was coming.”

As Flash of Mischief (23-1) was leading a five-horse vanguard through the first half of the race, Outadore was a close second making his dirt debut for trainer Wesley Ward. Señor Buscador was 12 1/4 lengths behind after a quarter-mile.

By the time the field got to the second turn, Quiñónez took Señor Buscador wide and asked for something more. Did he ever get it.

“I got him out of the dirt, and he flew home,” said Quiñónez, who also won this race in 2013 on Louies Flower. “He can go farther, too.”

Señor Buscador is a half-brother to 2018 Sunland Derby (G3) winner Runaway Ghost, who was trained for Peacock by Steve Asmussen.

“He was qualified to the Kentucky Derby in 2018, but he had a fractured cannon bone, so he had to miss the Derby,” Fincher said. “This one might be better, who knows?”