Fionn, with Flavien Prat up, edges Candy Quest to win the $2 million Blackwood Dueling Grounds Oaks (G3). (Coady Media)
> Victory capped Cox’s title for meet
> Dettori leaps to first American riding title with 9 wins
> Godolphin earns second owners title with five victories
by Mike Kane
FRANKLIN, Ky. – With another narrow score Wednesday at Kentucky Downs, Fionn further strengthened her widening reputation as a win machine.
Cousins George Messina and Michael Lee’s feisty filly edged Candy Quest by a half-length in the $2 million Blackwood Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational (G3). It was the third-straight graded stakes victory and sixth first-place finish in eight starts for the daughter of Twirling Candy trained by Brad Cox. That’s an eye-popping .750 win percentage and a perfect in-the-money percentage of 1.000 from a $75,000 yearling. The top prize in the Dueling Grounds Oaks on the final day of the track’s seven-day meet pushed her career earnings to $1,779,170.
Messina and Lee’s tiny stable completed the Kentucky Downs season with a 3-for-3 record. Their 4-year-old filly Stellify won twice, an allowance on Aug. 28 and the $2 million Light & Wonder Ladies Turf Marathon (G3) on Saturday. Stellify and Fionn are a combined 10-2-2 from a total of 14 starts in 2025.
“For a two-horse stable like Mike and I have, we have two fillies here and won both races ($2 million stakes),” said Messina, who lives in New Orleans. “The odds have got to be astronomical. We know we’re blessed. We know it doesn’t happen often. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
Though plans are not solidified, the stablemates may both run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov 1 at Del Mar.
“We’re on top of the world,” said Lee, who is from Spanish Fort, Ala., near Mobile. “We have our family here with us today. We were thinking of people who came before us and put us in this place. I wouldn’t be in horse racing if it wasn’t for my relatives that came before me.”
Fionn’s victory clinched Cox’s first training title at Kentucky Downs.
Following wins in the G3 Regret and the G1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, Fionn was the 2-1 morning line favorite in the full field of 12 for the 1 5/16th miles Dueling Grounds Oaks and she ended up as the 2-1 second choice in the wagering. Her Cox stablemate Destino D’Oro went off as the 4-5 favorite after a pair of wins this summer, including the Pucker Up (G3) at Ellis Park, but encountered some traffic trouble and wound up sixth.
Running Away led the way early, turning in split times of :24.26 and :48.12.
Following her established form, Fionn sat well off the pace under Flavien Prat and made a determined run through the stretch to snag the victory. Though Fionn was several paths away from the rail entering the stretch, Glessman Racing’s Candy Quest, sent off at 16-1, was wider still when she launched her sprint toward the front. Fionn, just to her inside, also moved, and the pair sped past everyone else, turning it into a two-horse contest.
Candy Quest had a slight edge at the eighth pole, but Fionn gained an advantage by the sixteenth pole and managed to extend it in the final 100 yards. Totally Justified was third. Fionn hit the wire in 2:05.52 and paid $6.92 to win.
“When the 12 (Candy Quest) came by us, I thought we were done,” Messina said. “Fionn, she’s got the heart of a champion. You don’t see what a heart looks like inside of a horse until they’re out on the track and proving it. She proved it today. I don’t know what else she’s got to do. If you ask me, she’s the best 3-year-old filly on the turf in America.”
Cox praised Fionn, noting that she won despite being pushed out of her comfort zone.
“She dug in, obviously was headed there,” Cox said. “She’s normally running horses down on the outside but had to dig in from the inside today. She’s tough. A very nice filly.”
Prat said he reacted to the conditions he was facing but wasn’t sure if Fionn was up to the challenge presented by Candy Quest.
“She ran a great race,” Prat said. “The horse in front of me wasn’t going well, so I moved early and thought she needed to get going. The horse outside came and got the jump on us, was honestly moving much better than us at the quarter pole. She just fought back. Inside the eighth pole, I felt like she fought back and had a chance. But at the quarter pole I thought I was going to run second.”
Meanwhile, Cox said he wondered how Fionn would handle having to contend with pressure from Candy Quest on her right flank.
“I saw her coming down the outside. I was obviously watching Destino d’Oro as well,” Cox said. “She had a little bit of a bottled-up trip. When it didn’t look like she was going to get through there, when they straightened up, I started watching Fionn. Mr. (Karl) Glassman’s filly (Candy Quest) made the lead, and I didn’t know how she would respond. But you could tell she wasn’t giving in, and she stayed on well. You could tell she was battling back. It was a little bit of the unknown with the distance today. She’s obviously won a Grade 1 at Saratoga, but this is the farthest she’s been and she responded well.”
Cox credited his team with developing Fionn into a top-class runner.
“Trace Messina is an assistant for us; his father owns the horse with his cousin, Michael Lee,” Cox said. “Blake, my son, had her up at Saratoga and did a good job prepping her for this. It really worked out. Very proud of her. She’s come a long way. She’s been a little challenging since we picked her up last year, but she’s definitely making it worthwhile.”
Cox explained that the filly has a tendency to get revved up, as she clearly was in the paddock prior to the race.
“She’s just a little difficult to handle,” Cox said. “You can set her off if you don’t have the right people handling her. All of our grooms have done a good job handling her, our whole team. Very excited about what she was able to do today.”
Messina and Lee have really cashed in at Kentucky Downs, and Cox joked about them reinvesting in some more bloodstock.
“It’s unbelievable. They’re good people and good things happen to good people,” he said. “They’re awesome people. Look, the Keeneland sale is going on, so I’m hoping they can expand that stable over the next week or so.”
The G1 Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland could be Fionn’s next stop, Cox said, or he might train her up to the Breeders’ Cup.
Lee mixed breeding and a famous geographic site in Northern Ireland to come up with a name for the filly, who is out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Gaelic Gold.
“Her grandfather is Giant’s Causeway, and Giant’s Causeway is a legend in Ireland,” Lee said. “The giant who built the causeway between Ireland and Scotland is named Fionn. She was named for a giant, and she is a giant.”
