Profile: Padrebri Racing Owner Talks About His Unbeaten Star Filly Benchian Fingers

 

With the thought put into her breeding, she was destined to be great.

And her name suggested that she would be larger than life.

So, when Benchian Fingers came up large, much larger than most anyone could have expected on the second day of the Breeder’s Bowl races last weekend, she did something that few horses do when they’re bred.

She lived up to her hype.

A total of 156 horses tried to smash a Breeders’s Bowl record last weekend, and only one, the two year old Awesome Again filly with the rather odd name, managed to turn the trick.

Benchian Fingers, owned by Padrebri Racing, catapulted herself and her owner onto the world stage with her stunning, record-breaking performance in the BB Juvy Filly on November 1.

But that fact alone didn’t put Brian’s filly in the superstar category and separate her from the rest of the pack.

She was also the only animal to remain undefeated after the sun set on the 14 Breeders’ Bowl races this year.

That his two year old filly, Benchian Fingers, is unbeaten so far is not just icing on the cake. That fact and her record-breaking performance in the Juvy Filly says a lot about the star power Brian’s big Awesome Again filly has managed to garner in a perfect 2014 campaign that has carried her to four graded stakes victories and six consecutive victories overall.

Brian and his super filly who goes by the unique name aren’t too worried about star power right now.

In fact, the laid back guy from Southern California, who lives near the San Diego area and loves horses and horse racing, rarely worries about anything. He lives pretty much in the here and now. He’s not concerned very much with the past, as we found out when he said he didn’t even know his filly had broken the stakes record for the Juvy Filly until a couple days after the race, when he read about it in the BTB.

And, Brian doesn’t worry too much about the future, as he says when he was asked about his specific plans and what‘s in store for his superstar filly.

When Benchian Fingers stayed unbeaten at 6-6, after she smashed the field (and the stakes record) in the Breeders’ Bowl Juvenile Filly last weekend, Brian says he “didn’t even realize she had broken the stakes record for the race,” when she finished the 8.5 furlongs in a time of 1:42.62, breaking the old stakes record (1:42.69) set by Miniminus in 2012.

“I had no idea that she had set the Breeders’ Bowl Filly Dirt record, until you mentioned it in a recap a few days later,” said the Californian who lives near his favorite track, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, in San Diego. “Track records aren’t something that I follow very closely. But, in retrospect, it’s pretty cool to own a record in one of the bigger races in the game.”

That Brian and Benchian Fingers snagged that stakes record last weekend with his first Breeders’ Bowl winner ever is pretty cool, too.

When we asked him to talk about his previous Breeders’ Bowl winners, a slight grin came over Brian’s face. The funny, clever, witty California trainer who’s very new to the Breeders’ Bowl winner’s circle loves to joke around.

“I would love to talk about my previous Breeders’ Bowl winners. Let me go look up that list,” said Brian. “Oh, wait, here it is. It’s a blank sheet of paper. This is my first Breeders’ Bowl winner in my ten years playing Derbyfever!”

That’s Brian for you.

“I’ve had a handful of runners, through the years,” said Brian. “But my best finish before this year had been a fourth place finish, only beaten by 1 length, in the Juvy Turf Filly race in 2005 with one of my favorite horses ever, Tenacious V.”

The BB win last weekend was long overdue for Brian.  But 2014 changed all that for the Southern California native.  Not only did his superstar filly Benchian Fingers break into the record books in the BB Juvy Filly, but Brian also had another pretty stunning juvenile called Set Da Sim On Fire run a very game second in the BB Juvy Turf race for the colts last weekend.

The man who took ten years to get his first Breeders’ Bowl winner has set himself up with a pretty nice foundation for the future with the pair of super juveniles he sent to the Breeders’ Bowl in 2014.

The word big comes to mind, when you think about Benchian Fingers. She is unbeaten, with that perfect 6-6 record. That’s big.   She smashed the Juvenile Filly record in the Breeders’ Bowl. That’s big.   Even her name, Benchian Fingers, suggests big.

Brian says her name comes from the American animated television series, Archer, which can be seen on the FX network. The name Benchian Fingers is a reference to the spy spoof series’ top female secret agent, Lana Kane. The character is a beautiful woman who is deadly and competent and who is also six feet tall. The fact that she has abnormally large hands is a source of jokes at the character’s expense.

“I find the show extremely funny and well done,” says Brian. “In the show, there is a running gag about Lana’s hands being extremely large, and Benchian Fingers was one of the lines used to describe her hands and insult her.  Johnny Bench, the Hall Of Fame catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, was known for his gigantic hands, and you can find photos of him holding seven baseballs in one hand. Her hands are also referred to as Truckasaurus and Flintstony Fists.”

Deadly and extremely competent, like the television series character she is named after — those words could be used to describe Brian’s filly, as she ripped her way through the 2014 season undefeated, on the way to her Breeders’ Bowl triumph.

Brian thought he had something pretty special on his own hands after Benchian Fingers debuted very early in her two year old season. But, the ten-year veteran trainer tempered his excitement.

“When she ran a 74 speed figure in her debut on March 3,” said Brian, “it no doubt caught my attention. That’s a damned big number, and I was obviously excited. However, I’ve had way too many horses pop in their debut, only to never come close to running that number again. So I was still leery. But then, when she popped an 80 speed figure in mid-April, on an off-track, no less, in her first race versus winners, I was convinced she could be something special.”

Brian figured his Awesome Again filly could skip over the remainder of her conditioned allowances and listed stakes, and he could send her straight to a graded stakes after her second win in two starts in his native California.

His decision turned out to be the right one.

“I had no qualms about sending her to a graded race to make her stakes debut, after she looked so good in her first two starts,” said Brian. “I picked out her stakes debut six weeks out from her second start. I don’t find there’s much difference between listed stakes and graded stakes for two year olds that early in the season. So, why not go for the extra points?”

Why not, indeed.

Brian shipped his California-based filly across the country to Vermont to the Grade 2 Vermont BB Juvenile Filly Stakes, where she had a close call against a tough bunch of seasoned fillies on the first day in June. It would turn out to be her closest margin of victory in all six of her wins, when she turned back the late charge of an Otto Haack-trained War Front filly, another great filly who went on to win the Grade 3 Schoolerville in her next start.

After Benchian Fingers won that grade 2 race in Vermont, Brian started thinking about the Breeders’ Bowl. “I knew that getting her the points should be relatively easy. I know nothing is easy in this game, but having grade 2 winning points by June 1 makes the process (of getting to the Breeders’ Bowl as a two year old) that much easier. Knowing that, I looked at the schedule, and I picked out another Grade 2 race seven weeks down the road. I really wanted to give her plenty of time between races at this point.”

It turned out to be a wise decision by Brian, who sent Benchian Fingers back across the country to British Columbia, where all his filly did was dominate another strong field in the 6-furlong Grade 2 Hoserhead Juvenile Fillies Stakes in British Columbia.

Brian’s filly popped a big 94 speed figure in that grade 2 win. But this time, there were two fillies who ran second and third behind Benchian Fingers who went on to win graded races in their next starts.

When We Were Young, who is owned by Magoo Racing, went on to dominate the boys in a convincing win in the Grade 1 Dell Computer Futurity in California. And, Uncivil Servant, owned by Nagnagnag Racing, captured the Grade 3 Buckeye Debutante in her next start after being beaten by Benchian Fingers.

The pattern that was beginning to take shape was clear.  Benchian Fingers was not just beating good fillies.  She was defeating next out graded winners.

“I think the real excitement kicked in after she dominated that Grade 2 Hoserhead Juvenile Fillies,” said Brian. “When do you see a two year old filly run a 94 speed figure in July? That is a number that is competitive in most juvenile Breeders’ Bowl races, and she ripped off that 94 speed figure nearly four months before the big dance in November. With even standard two year old improvement, I knew she would be a force to be reckoned with in the BB Juvy Filly race. It was about 14 weeks before the big day, so I decided to race her only once more before the Breeders’ Bowl.”

It just so happened that the race Brian found for his budding filly mirrors the top two-year-old race at the track nearest his home in real life, Del Mar. He picked the 7-furlong Grade 1 Dell Computer Debutante.

“It was the perfect match, and it would be run over the same track in the game as the Breeders’ Bowl races,” said Brian.

Benchian Fingers was coming full circle, ending up prepping for the Breeders’ Bowl where her story began, back at her home track in California. And, her Southern California-based trainer said he couldn’t have been more thrilled if he had hit a $300 million dollar lotto jackpot.

“I did consider trying a route before heading to the Breeders’ Bowl,” said Brian. “But I felt this particular grade 1 was the perfect place to go. Being perfectly honest here, I didn’t want to have my bubble burst before the first weekend in November. If she was going to bomb going a route of ground, I’d rather she blow it there, in the Breeders’ Bowl, rather than in a route seven weeks before and have to come to the Breeders’ Bowl with far less excitement.”

But it seemed that there would have to be at least one hiccup on the day of Benchian Fingers’ first grade 1 race in Brian’s home state of California. No one ever gets everything their own way, right?

In an area where it hardly ever rains, the track came up sloppy on the day of Benchian Fingers‘ first grade 1 race.  But, Brian thought the bad weather was actually a plus for his filly’s chances in the Grade 1 Dell Computer Debutante.

“I was extremely confident. The off track actually boosted my confidence level instead of raising more questions,” Brian noted. “Benchian Fingers had run so well in her second career start on a track labeled good that the sloppy track that came up on Debutante Day didn’t worry me at all.”

Brian’s filly took a little step back, at least in the speed figure department, on that rainy day in California just prior to her BB win. But he said Benchian Fingers was “in total control and cruised home pretty easily, winning it by three lengths.”

The stage was set.  Benchian Fingers was a perfect 5-5.  And, she was back home, resting in California, waiting for her record-breaking date with destiny on November 1 in the Breeders‘ Bowl.

Brian had five horses entered in the Breeders’ Bowl races, but he had two runners bumped because of lack of points before the two BB race days. That left him with three BB runners, and two of them, Benchian Fingers and Charger Power (named after his favorite NFL team, the San Diego Chargers), were in the same race, the Juvenile Filly.

Brian says he felt Benchian Fingers would be the better shot of his two girls in the Juvy Filly. But he was a bit concerned that distance could be an issue in the 8.5-furlong race for his super filly.

After all, Benchian Fingers had never been two turns in any of her five wins prior to her BB start. “I was confident, but let’s just say it was a guarded confidence.  I’ve been at this game way too long to not know anything can happen, and I knew there was a chance that I could be really disappointed after the race.  There were a few fillies who had popped big numbers going a mile or more.  But I thought if my filly ran her race, she would be tough to beat.”

Benchian Fingers did not disappoint her trainer on race day.

“I absolutely loved the way the race played out,” he said. “She was sitting fourth early and ready to pounce on the early speed.  When she made a forward move at the half mile pole and started breathing down the leaders’ necks, I was very confident no one was going to catch her. I was very happy to see that she improved significantly while moving up to a route, and the fact that she threw a 101 speed figure confirmed that.”

After her impressive, record-breaking performance in the Juvy Filly, Brian said Benchian Fingers came back to the barn “pretty worn out, and it was suggested she take an ‘extended rest.’ She has since improved but she is still a ’tired’ filly.”

Brian says he doesn’t plan on running his super filly again in 2014. “I think she’s done everything I could have asked of her. And having an undefeated Eclipse winning-type season sounds pretty awesome to me. I’ll sit down and maybe start mapping out a three-year-old schedule sometime soon to make sure she‘s ready for the Bluegrass….Oaks?  Derby?  Who knows?”

Brian said he realizes that history is against his filly fulfilling the expectations that have been placed on her when she turns three years old on January 1.

“I am completely aware of the tendency of precocious, champion two-year-olds falling off form,” he said. “But I can’t do anything about that.  It’s history.  I just have to move forward with my filly and see what happens. As we discussed, she’s bred to perform at classic distances as an older mare, so I still have that hope. And, if she turns out to be a one-year wonder, so be it.  It was an awesome year.”

The ever enthusiastic, but realistic, man from California left open the door for the possibility that Benchian Fingers could be the filly who defies Derbyfever history and goes on to have an even bigger and better three-year-old season.

“If she doesn’t flame out and continues to run at a high level,” said Brian, “well, maybe we are looking then at one of the greatest horses to ever run in this game. No one knows what’s going to happen, but the anticipation sure makes it a fun ride.”

With that scratch-bred pedigree of Awesome Again x Seattle Slew x Forty Niner, Brian said there is no doubt that Benchian Fingers could conceivably turn out to be even better as an older mare. She would be bucking history, if she does indeed pan out to be even greater as an older horse, given the Derbyfever trend of having precocious two year olds falling into oblivion after their superstar freshman campaigns.

“About this time last year, I started stocking up on what I was going to use for sires for my 2014 crop,” said Brian, who has 120 two-year olds in his barn, with only 22 of those being scratch-breds.

Brian said he “focused more on dirt routers (with this crop) in an effort to get more runners in the Oaks and the Derby and the classic dirt races.  Benchian Fingers’ sire, Awesome Again, was #2 on my list, behind Distorted Humor.  In her dam sire slot, I used one of my all-time favorites, Seattle Slew.  You can’t go wrong, using a Triple Crown winner when you’re trying to breed a dirt-routing, classic distance-type animal.”

“Also, by now, I’m sure everyone knows of my infatuation with Vindication, who was also sired by Seattle Slew,” Brian said. “After that, all that was left was filling the dam’s damsire slot, when I was breeding Benchian Fingers. Having a sire from the Northern Dancer line and a damsire from the Hail To Reason line, or even just saying the Seattle Slew line himself, I think it was obvious that I needed to use a sire from the Mr. Prospector line. I gave Forty Niner the nod for the dam’s damsire slot, and that was ultimately how Benchian Fingers was bred. She is a filly bred for classic distances, with a 4×4 cross to Mr. Prospector.”

Whether or not Brian’s super filly, who was bred for the classics, can buck the trend of juvenile champions failing to launch as three year olds remains to be seen. But it’s going to be a lot of fun watching the big filly with the rather unusual name try to do exactly that in 2015.

After all, as Brian says, we could be seeing a filly for the ages in the making.