Maritime Triple Crown winner Deep Finesse has settled into his new home south of the border and will look to determine his itinerary for a sophomore stakes-filled season after he qualifies on Tuesday at Harrahs Chester
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With 15 victories out of 18 starts in 2008, Deep Finesse established himself as the winningest freshman in North America for O’Brien Award winner Phil Pinkney of Central Onslow, N.S. The son of Western Paradise out of Deep River Woman banked $85,623, the most money a two-year-old Maritime-bred has ever earned, and took a mark of 1:56.3 at Charlottetown Driving Park. His accomplishments on track earned him the title as Atlantic Canada’s Horse of the Year.
In February, Larry Baron of Horsham, Pennsylvania purchased Deep Finesse for about $75,000. The bay colt has since relocated to Josh Green’s training centre in Delaware where 40 some horses of Baron’s are stabled.
“He seems to be happy here,” Baron told Trot Insider. “He can be a tough horse to work with, but there’s a girl that takes care of him and he’s just great with her so he seems to be adjusting well. I know Josh has spoken to Phil Pinkney on a couple of occasions with whatever questions he may have had so the transition from them was very good.
“When I purchased Deep Finesse I think he was just jogging. When we got him we gave him a couple of weeks off just to freshen him up and then we just started from scratch.
“Josh likes him,” adds Baron. “He’s kind of a lazy horse. He’s much better when he trains with other horses, but he’s training well and he’s a great looking animal.”
For his three-year-old campaign, Deep Finesse remains eligible to the Atlantic Sires Stakes program and has been staked to the Burlington, the North America Cup and most of the big stakes in the U.S. including the Meadowlands Pace.
“There’s not a whole lot I can say until I see him qualify. Once we qualify him once or twice we’ll make a decision whether we point him to the really big events down here in the States or whether we point him to all those stakes where he seemed to clean up in Canada last year.
“I don’t know if he’s going to be a $50,000 claimer or if he’s really a top stakes horse. He’s definitely going to have to step up to race against those horses.”
Baron is quick to give credit where credit is due for his new aquisition and notes that Gerald Bloch actually made the recommendation to him to purchase the Maritime pacing star.
“Every now and then Gerry looks for horses for me. He found Deep Finesse for me and said ‘I think he’d do you good’ so I have to give Gerry the credit if he turns out well. I don’t hear from him too often, but normally when I do he’s pretty much on the money with horses that are good young horses.”