Finnegan!

How about our little homebred on Thanksgiving Day? All Finnegan's Wake did in winning the Grade II Hollywood Gold Cup was set an all-time track record at Del Mar. This means that Donegal Racing now owns BOTH the all time stakes record at a mile and a quarter (Dullahan), and the all-time track record on turf at a mile and a half with Finnegan. We own that place! Hopefully Rock Shandy knows that come Sunday!

First off, in the spirit of full disclosure, I was dubious about running Finnegan this far. He is bred to run a mile and a quarter and has never had punch left for the finish when he has tried to go longer. Credit to Peter Miller and Victor Espinoza in having him fit enough, and then giving him a perfect ride. The race set up exactly as Peter, myself and Victor discussed pre-race. Credit to Peter and Conor Foley for insisting this was a good spot.

The best news of all (as Bob Hogan said yesterday) was what this does to the value of PUCA as a potential broodmare. With this help from Finnegan, our $90,000 filly is going to be worth an enormous amount of money. If she runs at the level Bill Mott expects, the sky is the limit. And as I enjoy pointing out, Matt Gannon and I sold Finnegan's Wake to Donegal for $30,000. Wish we had Finnegans and Pucas to put into our stable every day!

We now have the rest of the trifecta to complete this weekend. Keen Ice tomorrow and Rock Shandy on Sunday...two more graded stakes. Let's keep it going!

Hope you all had a wonderful day with loved ones yesterday.  

Jerry