Fincher Sets 2023 Game Plan for Slammed, Senor Buscador

Although West Coast-based trainer Todd Fincher ended his last trip to Keeneland for the 2022 Breeders' Cup with less than favorable results, he has marched forward into 2023 with a new game plan for his talented trainees. Slammed, the now 5-year-old daughter of Marking who was only the second New Mexico-bred in history to arrive at the World Stage, finished last in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) after leading for the first half and then fading in the stretch. The mare has battled foot issues for numerous years after a pasture accident as a juvenile. "I don't think her foot was 100% at that time and then she drew the one hole which is the last post you'd want to pick. We went and tried to fix her foot and gave her some time off and she just came back into training so she's a long ways from anything newsworthy... (her foot) has been a problem her entire life," Fincher said. "It'll get good for a short period and you'll see how good she can run and then it'll come back and bug her again. It's a deformed foot from getting cut when she was a baby in a fence. They tried to get it where there will never be a problem again so hopefully we got it fixed this time." Fincher, who co-bred Slammed, says the mare just returned to light training 10 days ago. Despite her health issues throughout the duration of her career, the "tough as nails" mare fought back as a 3-year-old to win four stakes races in a row, the Sierra Starlet Stakes, Carlos Salazar Stakes, Petticoat Stakes, and New Mexico Classic Cup Championship Fillies and Mares Stakes. Campaigned by co-breeder Brad King, Barbara Coleman, and Stan and Suzanne Kirby, Slammed captured her first graded stakes placing and victory in 2022, coming third in the Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3), and winning her last start before the World Championships in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) around the Lexington oval. Fincher's other entrant at the World Championships was Senor Buscador, a homebred for Joe Peacock. The 5-year-old son of Mineshaft finished eighth out of nine horses who ran in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) after a trip in which he never challenged and traveled towards the back of the pack the entire way around. "It was unbelievable, I didn't have any doubt in my mind that he would win that race," Fincher said. "He was doing so good. He went out to the track and the post parade was great. When they brought him up to the gate he was completely washed out, which he's never done before in his life. Then, obviously, he bled really bad. He didn't even run a jump that day, very heartbreaking on that." Senor Buscador returned to the work tab in early January at Sunland Park and Fincher says that his next start will likely be stakes company in Arkansas. "He's getting pretty close to be ready to run. We'll hopefully take him to Oaklawn and run him over there it's the plan if everything goes good." With a record of 4-0-1 from eight starts, Senor Buscador started off his career strong, breaking his maiden in the fall of 2020 on his first try at Remington Park. He returned to the Oklahoma City track for his next start in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes where he pulled away by 5 3/4 lengths for the victory. He went on to place at Del Mar in the 2022 Pat O' Brien Stakes (G2) before winning the Ack Ack Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs in his last race ahead of the Breeders' Cup. The ultimate goal for both horses will be a return to the World Championships in November at Santa Anita Park. "We're going to try to make another Breeder's Cup run with both of them this year and see what happens," Fincher said. "Might as well get (Slammed) out that way. That's where the Breeders' Cup is and they may have a couple of races she can run in. We're not really looking for a ton of races before the Breeders' Cup. We just want to get her there at the right time. Timing is everything."