By Bill Finley
Senor Buscador (Mineshaft), whose career was highlighted by a win in this year's $20-million G1 Saudi Cup, will join the stallion ranks in 2025, but, first the owners plan to race him twice more before he heads to stud. He is slated to run in the Dec. 7 GII Cigar Mile H. at Aqueduct and then the Jan. 25 GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream before beginning his stallion career.
The story was first reported by Horse Racing Nation.
“The horse is training really well,” breeder and majority owner Joey Peacock said. “We thought he ran a creditable race in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He beat nine very talented horses. He just couldn't catch the other four. The Beyer figures came back pretty nice, at a 103 for him. He's been training really well and these races are coming up pretty fast. We thought it would be worthwhile to give him the opportunity to keep going forward and get in a couple more nice races. Things can always change with a horse. If we wake up one morning and say this doesn't feel right then we won't push things. We never have with him. This is the same path he took last year. He ran in the Breeders' Cup and then the Cigar and then the Pegasus. He just seemed to be getting better at this time of year. The horse is doing great. We'd just like to give him two more chances to go out and run in two big races.”
Wins in the Cigar Mile and Pegasus will not mean that Senor Buscador will remain in training.
“He's going to be seven and although he was fairly lightly raced for a 7-year-old because he missed so much of his 3- and 4-year-old years,” Peacock said. “I just feel that after Pegasus there's not anything immediately in front of us other than going to the Middle East again. To do that again would be asking too much of the horse at this stage in his career.”
Peacock said he has not yet reached an agreement with a stud farm, but believes he is getting close.
“We've already started buying mares for him,” Peacock said. “We're excited about his next career and looking forward to seeing what his babies can do for us. I think we're getting pretty close and are in discussions with some farms but nothing we can announce at this point.”
During the recently concluded Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, an entity called Senor Buscador Mares purchased eight horses for $477,000, with a top price of $95,000.
Senor Buscador, who is trained by Todd Fincher, has been a modern day Silky Sullivan. He has no early speed, usually drops back several lengths behind the leaders and then makes a run. Sometimes it got him to wire first and sometimes it did not.
“This horse has taken us all over the U.S. and then halfway around the world to compete on the world stage with the best horses on the planet,” Peacock said. “It doesn't get any better than that. It's been a phenomenal ride. He's the type of horse who always put a solid effort in. His running style is a heart attack for the owners. But it's a lot of fun to watch when it works. It's always thrilling, it's always dramatic, it's always fun. But we know he makes things hard for himself because of his running style.”
To this point in his career, Senor Buscador sports a record of 7-2-3 from 22 starts and earnings of $12,941,427. His other graded wins came in the GII San Diego H. and the GIII Ack Ack S. He was also third in this year's G1 Dubai World Cup.
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