Finnegans Wake Seeks More Graded Glory in San Marcos

Article by Horse Racing Nation

Graded stakes winner Finnegans Wake and Patrioticandproud are set to meet once again in Saturday’s 63rd running of the San Marcos Stakes as a competitive field of nine older horses have signed on to run 1 ¼ miles on turf.  

Finnegans Wake will be looking for his third straight graded stakes victorySaturday. First in Del Mar’s Grade II Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 ½ miles two starts back Nov. 27 where he beat Patrioticandproud by a neck, the two hooked up again in the Grade II San Gabriel Jan. 3 at Santa Anita where Finnegans Wake won by a length, once again just besting Patrioticandproud.

Though 10th to Eclipse Award Champion Grass Horse and Older Male of 2014, Main Sequence in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Nov. 1, Finnegans Wake hasn’t been worse than second in his other three starts since being acquired by trainer Peter Miller in September.

Owned by Donegal Racing and Rockingham Ranch the 6-year-old horse by Powerscourt will break from the rail under Victor Espinoza. He is 26-5-3-3 overall with earnings of $945,375.

Mark Casse’s Patrioticandproud will try to turn the tables on Finnegans Wake Saturday in his third graded stakes attempt. Ridden for the third time in-a-row by Eclipse Award Champion Apprentice Jockey Drayden Van Dyke, Patrioticandproud seeks his first graded stakes victory.

Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber, the 6-year-old Proud Citizen gelding is 27-4-10-4 overall with $492,605 in earnings.

Neil Drysdale will be represented by both Power Ped and Power Foot. Power Ped, a last- out winner of the Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Turf Handicap Jan. 17 at Turf Paradise was third in the San Gabriel Jan. 3.

The 5-year-old gelding by Powerscourt has two wins, two seconds and two thirds over Santa Anita’s turf course. Owned by Stepaside Farms, LLC, he is 18-4-5-2 overall with $274,432 in earnings.

Power Foot, a 6-year-old gelding, also by Powerscourt, won his last out, a 1 ½ miles turf allowance at Santa Anita Jan. 8 and ran a game fourth in the Hollywood Turf Cup Nov. 27. Also owned by Stepaside Farms, LLC, he is 19-4-0-3 overall with earnings of $220,564.

Armed with a new rider in Hall of Famer Mike Smith, Sean McCarthy’s Majestic Harbor will attempt to turn his luck around Saturday after a four race losing streak. The Grade I Gold Cup winner from June 28, Majestic Harbor will try turf for the first time since an allowance try at Del Mar in August, 2012 in which he ran third.

The 7-year-old horse by Rockport Harbor is owned by Gallant Stable and is 27-6-6-4 overall with earnings of $674,264.

The complete field for the Grade II San Marcos Stakes, to be run as the 7th race on a nine-race card Saturday, in post position order with jockeys and weights: Finnegans Wake, Victor Espinoza, 123; Patrioticandproud, Drayden Van Dyke, 118; Majestic Harbor, Mike Smith, 120; Power Ped, Flavien Prat, 118; Little Jerry, Edwin Maldonado, 118; Diamond Bachelor, Martin Pedroza, 118; Quadrivium, Forest Boyce, 118; Dynamic Sky, Corey Nakatani, 118; and Power Foot, Kieren Fallon, 118.