After the Finn Stable sustained a loss that left them reeling, the family is hoping Rockin Racer, who has demolished her opposition in three trips to the post this year at Hoosier Park, may alleviate some of the sorrow residing in their souls and demonstrate her own prowess at overcoming significant obstacles to even compete.
“We suffered a tragedy when we lost ($283,564 winner) Rockin Good,” said JD Finn. “We took her to Ohio to race and she came down with a bad case of the strangles. She immediately went to Ohio State and they provided her with the best of care. Even with their efforts it was very serious and after being there for some time, she was finally able to come home. She was doing really well and was healthy until one day she just couldn’t get up. We tried everything we could to save her, but we knew what we had to do for her. We think now she may have had EPM, but it still hurts every day she is not with us.
“Rockin Racer reminded us of her as a yearling and is the reason we bought her. We trained her down in 2:07 and she broke her splint bone in two places in her right front leg, so we had to wait on her. We knew she had talent but we didn’t think she would be winning like this.”
Left: Rockin Good, winning at The Red Mile (Nigel Soult). Right: Rockin Racer, winning at Hoosier Park (Linscott Photography)
Rockin Racer seeks to extend her record to a perfect four-for-four when she takes on nine other rivals in the $15,000 Miss Windfall final on Saturday (April 29) at Hoosier Park. Conditioned by JD Finn, the three-year-old pacing filly will leave from the rail as the 3-2 favourite in the seventh race on the card with his son Jared holding the lines.
Not only has the daughter of Rockin Image-Portia Blue Chip amassed the highest seasonal earnings in the field ($12,500), but her speed badge of 1:52.4 is nearly a full two seconds swifter than the other contestants have paced.
“Everything she has done has been well within herself,” the elder Finn said. “We have never asked her and have been very surprised by how she has been racing.”
Despite displaying immense promise at this early stage of her career, Rockin Racer has much more to achieve before she can rival the likes of her former stablemate Rockin Good.
Rockin Good was purchased for $9,500 at the 2013 Hoosier Classic Yearling Sale. The daughter of Rockin Image-Do Me Good was an Indiana champion, a stakes victress and collected $283,564 for the Finns during her two-year career. She took a mark of 1:48 at The Red Mile, the second fastest mile ever by a sophomore pacing filly.
Rockin Racer, who is co-owned by Finn Racing and Hinshaw Homestead Farms, was selected from the 2015 Hoosier Classic Yearling Sale for $7,500 and is a full sister to Undertaker ($129,807). Unraced at age two, the filly has been simply dominant in each of her three-year-old engagements.
Her first start was a powerful performance coming from off the pace to stop the clock in 1:54.3 in a $10,000 Rosie Harness Memorial contest on April 8. The following week she went to the top at the half-mile marker and never looked back, lowering her mark to 1:53.1 in the first leg of the Miss Windfall Series. In her latest foray last Saturday (April 22) in the second leg of the Miss Windfall, she decimated 11 other fillies and mares with a wire-to-wire victory while setting her new lifetime mark of 1:52.4.
Although she will be extremely short odds at the windows this weekend, Rockin Racer defeated exceptionally long ones to even place her nose upon the starting gate in a pari-mutuel contest, which makes these performances all the more rewarding for the Finns.
“Well first we had that splint bone,” said Finn, who conditions his horses at the Jasper County Fairgrounds. “All we could do was take it out and wait to see what would happen. Fortunately, the leg healed beautifully and we have not had one problem with it; it came out just perfect.
“But we had another issue and even if the leg had not happened, we would have been embarrassed to take her anywhere because her tail fell out. The vet said it was some type of fungus and it came out in hunks; she had no tail at all and we would never want to take a horse around looking the way she did. It grew back and is black now except for about four inches from her tail bone; that is all gray.”
Although she obviously possesses speed and relishes her work, Rockin Racer has quite the personality when she is not on the track pacing.
“She is a rip around the barn,” Finn said. “She is very professional when it is time to race or train, but we could not get hobbles on her. She would lay right down whenever we would try to put that last leg in. We have to lay them on the ground for her to step into. She likes to do her things her way.”
Like Rockin Good before her, Rockin Racer will target the lucrative Indiana Sire Stakes program and other stakes over the Anderson oval.
“She will stay at Hoosier and race in the sire stakes,” Finn said. “That is our plan for the season and of course we always have to consult with our partners on her. She will also tell us where to go herself. We bought her because she reminded us so much of Rockin Good as a yearling and we like Rockin Image as a sire, plus Undertaker’s career was another reason for buying her.
“We are very surprised with how this filly has already went in (1):52 and the way she has done it, but Undertaker has been in (1):51, so we are looking forward to the year with her.
“It still stings with what happened with Rockin Good and I think it is one of those things that will never really go away; that pain will always be there, but maybe this filly can help ease a little bit of that sting.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.