A caravan of over 20 people made the 500-mile journey from central Pennsylvania to central Kentucky this week to watch star Pennsylvania-bred Just One Time (Not This Time) step up to Grade I company in Saturday's Madison S. at Keeneland.
“She has developed a bit of a following in Pennsylvania,” said Donnie Brown, who operates Warrior's Reward LLC with partner Tom McClay. “We wanted to get down early to visit a few farms in Lexington and go see her before race day. We have a group of people texting about when they're getting on the road and where they're staying, so we hope to have a nice Pennsylvania contingency there at Keeneland.”
Just One Time has been a bit of a celebrity in Pennsylvania since the day she was foaled. Warrior's Reward LLC purchased her dam Ida Clark (Speighstown) at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale for $45,000 with Just One Time in utero. The Not This Time filly arrived on Easter Sunday.
“We took the whole family over to see her,” Brown recalled. “From day one she had fans on and off the farm who thought she was a good-looking filly.”
Warrior's Reward LLC breeds almost exclusively to race, with a focus on producing Pennsylvania-breds, so the filly was slated to go to the racetrack from the start. She was sent to trainer Mike Salvaggio, who was high on her from the get-go, but Brown wasn't equally convinced until he heard an outside opinion.
“If we could tell ability based off half-mile works, we would all be geniuses,” Brown said with a laugh. “My partner and Mike always said she was going to be something special, but I didn't buy it until one of our other trainers called and asked if we owned a chestnut filly in Mike's barn. He had watched her train and said she was a nice horse.”
In May of her sophomore year, Just One Time won on debut at Penn National, but showed she had much to learn when she was rambunctious in the gate. She won her next start by over four lengths in the Malvern Rose S. at Presque Isle Downs, but her inexperience caught up with her when she accepted her first and only loss a month later in the Lady Erie S.
“Angel Rodriguez was up and he said after the race that he just couldn't slow her down,” Brown recalled. “They were wanting to go fast and he couldn't get her to rate. She didn't want to give up the lead.”
The chestnut filly returned to the winner's circle in her next two starts at Penn National, first an allowance race where she trounced the field by over six lengths, and then the New Start S., where afterwards Todd Mostoller inquired about buying into the filly for his Commonwealth New Era Racing.
“We struck a deal and he asked what we thought about going to the races outside of Pennsylvania,” Brown said. “I told him that the condition book and the filly are telling us we have to.”
Just One Time was sent to Brad Cox, where she received months of schooling and put in eight works before returning to the starting gate.
A young Just One Time | photo courtesy Donnie Brown
“Brad spent some time teaching her how to relax and be a more versatile racehorse,” Brown noted. “She was always wanting to beat anything that went by her and he got her to relax and slow down.”
The Cox barn was rewarded with their months of work when the filly made her first start against open company in the GII Inside Information S. on the GI Pegasus World Cup undercard. The 4-year-old was fractious in the gate and broke slow, but after traveling mid-pack throughout the race, she went four and five wide around the turn for home and flew to the wire to get the win.
“I remember [Joel] Rosario saying that she didn't like getting dirt in her face, so he decided to get her as wide as he could go and see what happened,” Brown explained. “Once he put her wide, she started running. She has learned something every time she runs. I think the biggest thing that we're realizing is that she's just so competitive.”
Just One Time's victory in the Inside Information marked Brown's first time in the winner's circle for a graded stakes as an owner.
“We got down two days early so we could meet Brad Cox and see her before the race,” Brown said. “What a great day that was, Pegasus Day at Gulfstream.”
Brown has been hearing only good things from Cox as the filly prepares for her start in the Madison S., but in the meantime he is closely following the progeny of Warrior's Reward, the Grade I-winning stallion his partnership owns. This year the son of Medaglia d'Oro is expecting his first crop of 2-year-olds since he arrived at WynOaks Farm in Pennsylvania in 2019.
“The first year he was here, he covered 115 mares,” Brown reported. “There are about 80 2-year-olds out there in training now and I've heard from quite a few people that they're very happy with them. Tom and I own about two dozen that are under saddle already. He passes on really good bone and size in his babies. When he was in Kentucky he had runners in the Breeders' Cup and in Dubai, Del Mar and Saratoga. We're hoping some of that success passes on right here to the Pennsylvania program.
This weekend, Brown and the rest of the Just One Time fan club are looking forward to cheering on their star Pennsylvania-bred.
“I've been racing horses for 30 years now but with her, even if you know she's not running for a month, people still talk to you about her,” Brown said. “I get excited any time we have a horse entered, but at the graded-stakes level, it has me talking to people everywhere. It's a whole new level of having something to be excited about.”
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