IT'S BEEN A LONG ROAD BUT HE'S FINESSE FINALLY COMES HOME A WINNER

By Graham Potter | Sunday, April 27, 2025

The Maiden win of the New Zealand-bred He’s Finesse at Toowoomba in a Maiden Plate over 2150m on April 27 was a great example of a reward earned by a stable through persistence … through sticking to the task of getting a horse up to race winning level … as long as it takes.

The Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership gave the son of Sweynesse four barrier trails over a period of five months before giving him a taste of race action. His first preparation covered two runs … both unplaced, both over 1350m, both pipe-openers over a distance that would be well short of what he needed to perform at his best.

Then followed another four-and-a-half month break away from racing … then a return for only one run … again unplaced over 1350m … then another break of two months.

Nobody said it would be easy and, as always, patience was the name of the game.

When he resumed again though, the Sears camp stepped up the distance test to 1625m with immediate results. Not a win, but a second place finish which represented vast improvement on anything that He’s finesse had produced before.

The question now was whether He’s finesse could build on that, and he was given that chance over 2150m in his next start in which he claimed a satisfying victory by a 1.30 length margin under jockey Nozi Tomizawa.

Tomizawa had the $3.40 second favourite track the leaders in third spot, on the rail, all the way until the approach to the home turn where he switched He’s finesse out two wide and made his move, quickly making up ground on the two horses in front of him to sweep into the lead as the field straightened for home.

That proved to be the winning move as, although He’s Finesse bounded clear in the first half of the straight, the favourite Samurai Warrior ($2), who has been the early leader, started to close the gap on He’s Finesse over the concluding stages, but, courtesy of that early move, the Sears trained runner still had a margin to spare at the line.