Finn Flying High At Wenty In 2019

Training great John Finn isn't enjoying the best of health but courtesy of his remarkable association with the progeny of Chica Destacada, the veteran is on target to claim his second straight Wentworth Park Trainers Premiership.

While 78-year-old Finn has trained some of the sport's all-time greats and won the biggest races on the calendar, he secured his first Metropolitan title in 2018, denying Mark Gatt back-to-back titles in an epic duel that went down to the penultimate race of the year.

Courtesy of 43 city wins, Cranebrook-based Finn edged out Gatt by only two points in The Recorder's Wentworth Park Premiership, which allocates ten points for each city win, four for second and two for third.

At the half-way point of 2019, Finn is once again leading the race, having trained 26 winners, 24 seconds and 19 thirds for a tally of 394 points.

He's 30 points clear of multiple winner Jodie Lord (23 winners – 364 points), with last year's runner-up Mark Gatt third on 218 points (14 winners).

Finn has always relied on quality rather than quantity and it was the phenomenal April '16 litter by the great Fernando Bale out of the 2014 National Sprint Champion and Melbourne Cup runner-up Chica Destacada that catapulted him to last year's breakthrough title.

"You never get a litter like that," said Finn's wife Minnie.

"You need the dogs behind you to win a premiership and we've never really had big numbers. We always used to sell them!"

Finn trained four members of the litter, bred and raced by Denis Donoghue and Peter McDermott, the Dee And Pee Syndicate. 

Poco Dorado has won 17 races at Wentworth Park, including 12 from 18 over 720m, highlighted by the Group 3 Sydney and Summer Cups in 2018.

Blue Moon Rising, which upstaged superstar Tornado Tears to win the Group 1 Super Stayers at The Meadows earlier this year before returning home to take out the Group 3 Wentworth Park Gold Cup, has won 12 races over 520m and 720m at the Glebe circuit.

Veloce Nero, winner of this year's Group 1 Association Cup on Golden Easter Egg night, boasts 12 wins over both distances at Wentworth Park.

Two Times Twice, whose biggest win came in the 2018 Group 2 Queensland Derby, has won 11 races at headquarters. 

The littermates made up the field in last Saturday night's Zoom Top Flying4 (720m) at Wentworth Park, with Blue Moon Rising victorious in 42.16s.

"Two Times Twice has been sold to Enzo Crudeli and he actually left for Perth today (Tuesday)," Minnie Finn explained this week.

"The owners will breed with the two bitches (Poco Dorado and Veloce Nero). I'd say they will both probably keep going until the Nationals and then that might be it, while Blue Moon Rising will keep racing a bit longer."

The Finns only have 11 dogs in work, all offspring of Chica Destacada, with the mighty Fernando Bale quartet joined early in 2019 by seven members of her second mating, with another Wheeler-bred super sire in Barcia Bale.

Finn remarkably qualified five members of the Barcia Bale litter for the Group 3 Magic Maiden Final during the Golden Easter Egg Carnival; Really Unreal (4 Wentworth Park wins), Dreamin' Is Free (3 WPK wins, including 2 over 720m), Blue Summer Sky (3 WPK wins), Blanco Caliente (1 WPK win) and Making A Memory.

However, the race was won by another sibling, the Kerry Drynan-trained Timeless Moment. 

"The Barcia Bale litter is only young but they're funny dogs," Finn offered.

"I thought Really Unreal might've been pretty good but she's put in a couple of bad ones at Wenty recently."

Finn added to his Wentworth Park tally on Wednesday night with a double, courtesy of Toca Madera and Blue Summer Sky.

With John battling ill-health, the Finns are in the process of cutting back their involvement; however Minnie was full of praise for the greatly improved state of NSW greyhound racing, including the long overdue recently announced prizemoney boost.

"John has had two heart attacks in 12 months and isn't real well," Minnie explained.

"We're not breeding ourselves any more. We've got two litters left; Bessy Boo x Winsome Amanda and Fernando Bale x Avondale Queen and that will be it. 

"We're on the downhill run now but you can't complain about things at the moment. People will always whinge in this industry but I reckon it's going the best it has in a very long time."