Although primarily considered a “turf horse” by breeders for most of his career at stud, the tremendous sire Giant's Causeway is having an exceptional run of success on this side of the Atlantic wet spot.
In 2019, the son of Storm Cat had champion Bricks and Mortar, who was the country's best turf horse and yet, despite winning 11 of 13 starts, was “only a turf horse” and was allowed to be exported to Japan, where they sometimes race on turf, unlike the U.S. Oh, do we have turf races here?
Last year, the Giant's Causeway stallion Protonico sired Medina Spirit in the sire's first crop, and that Grade 1 winner also finished first in the Kentucky Derby, although he was disqualified from that victory on Feb. 21.
Also entering stud in 2017, like the dark brown Protonico, was another son of Giant's Causeway, the dark brown Not This Time. A half-brother to Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map, Not This Time is out of the noted broodmare Miss Macy Sue (by Trippi).
Both young sires were bred in Kentucky by the Albaugh Family Stables LLC, and that entity faced the predictable dilemma of any breeder who races and sells: which to keep and which to sell. They chose well in selling Liam's Map, who brought $800,000 as a yearling to St. Elias, then raced for Teresa Viola Stables and West Point Thoroughbreds.
The decision to sell the gray colt looked like a smart one from a business perspective until he was a 4-year-old and won three of his four starts, earning the majority of his $1.3 million in racetrack earnings and a spot at stud. There he retired to a positive reception as a stallion at Lane's End Farm, where Liam's Map sired champion Colonel Liam and numerous other stakes winners.
The sale of Liam's Map prompted Dennis Albaugh to say “not this time” to the idea of selling Miss Macy Sue's good-looking son of Giant's Causeway and instead retained him for the family stable.
And that's how the colt got his name.
Racing for Albaugh Family Stables, Not This Time won two of his four starts, earning $454,183. That doesn't appear to be an unequivocal success, but one of the starts that the dark brown colt lost was the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, when he was two lengths behind Classic Empire at the stretch call and lost by a neck after Classic Empire “dug in gamely to fend off Not This Time,” according to the official race chart.
Not This Time came out of the Juvenile with a soft-tissue injury to his right foreleg and never raced again. He retired to Taylor Made Farm, which bought a 50 percent stake in the colt, for the 2017 breeding season at an initial stud fee of $15,000 live foal.
Jason Loutsch, family member and racing manager for Albaugh Stables, said “I'm a huge fan of Giant's Causeway, and we really wanted to stay in on Not This Time [as a stallion]. We kept half the horse in the deal with Taylor Made. We thought it would be a great partnership for us and for the horse, and they've done a great job of promoting him.”
From his first crop, foals of 2018, Not This Time sired Grade 1 winner Princess Noor and ranked third among freshman sires of 2020 behind the leading Uncle Mo sons Nyquist ($2,424,083) and Laoban ($1,559,748) with $1,557,138. A third son of Uncle Mo, Outwork, was fourth on the list.
As part of the plan to support Not This Time, Loutsch said, “Dennis and I went to the January sale and bought 10 mares that we thought would match well with him. We bought the mare who produced Princess Noor and then bred three other good racers from those mares, one of which is now the dam of Simplification.”
[Albaugh Stables sold both mares, the dams of Princess Noor and Simplification, in foal to Not This Time. Not This Time/AFS bought the stakes-placed Simply Confection (Candy Ride) at the 2017 January sale as a broodmare prospect for $90,000, did not get a foal from her in 2018, then sold her in the 2019 Keeneland November sale, in foal to Not This Time, for $80,000 to France Weiner, agent. That foal is Simplification, bred by France and Irwin Weiner.]
In the meantime, Princess Noor was impressing anyone paying attention to freshmen sires and high-performing juveniles. She won her first three starts like a champion, then as favorite for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, finished fifth. Princess Noor came back in the Starlet and was pulled up after three-quarters and vanned off. She never raced again but sold in foal to Into Mischief to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.9 million.
Of course, one swallow does not a summer make, but Not This Time catapulted himself to the top of his division among second-crop sires with 13 stakes winners in 2021 and gross progeny earnings of $5.4 million, first among second-crop sires and first as the overall leading sire by percentage of stakes winners to runners (10.3).
Loutsch said that, as the result of racing Not This Time and retiring him to stud, “We're having a lot of fun right now, and it's only going to get better.
“As a result of his initial success, his mare quality has stepped up, and this year's book has stepped up another level too.”
The stallion's volume of stakes winners from his first two crops have pushed the horse's stud fee to $45,000 for 2022, and this year, Not This Time is ranked 11th nationally among all sires, with three stakes winners and $1.2 million in earnings after 50 days.
The sire's chief earner for 2022 is Epicenter, who won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. The bay colt had been one of his sire's 13 stakes winners last year, picking up the Gun Runner Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Dec. 26, and in his 3-year-old debut, Epicenter led nearly the entire race for the Lecomte Stakes, losing to Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) at the wire.
Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farm, Epicenter is out of the Candy Ride mare Silent Candy. Winchell Thoroughbreds purchased the colt for $260,000 at the Keeneland September yearling auction of 2021 from the consignment of Bettersworth Westwind Farms.
Now a winner in three of his five starts, Epicenter has earned $410,639. He is one of the sire's three stakes winners this season, with Just One Time winning the G2 Inside Information winning on Jan. 29 and Simplification winning the Mucho Macho Man on New Year's Day. The latter came back on Feb. 5 and was second in the G3 Holy Bull Stakes.
With horses like Epicenter, Simplification, stakes winner Howling Time (bullet work at Gulfstream on Feb. 19), recent Oaklawn allowance winner Chasing Time, recent Gulfstream allowance winner In Due Time, and others, Not This Time and those closely associated with him are going to have a very exciting spring.
The post Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Decision To Keep Not This Time Paying Off For Albaugh Family Stables appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
