not this time | Horse Racing Free Tips

Not This Time Colt Caps Speedy Week for GOP Racing Stable

A colt by Not This Time (hip 654) equaled the fastest-furlong time of the week when covering the distance in :9 3/5 during the final session of the under-tack show for next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Friday in Central Florida.

The chestnut colt is consigned by trainer Gerard Ochoa's GOP Racing Stable.

“I was hoping for a :9 4/5,” Ochoa said through an interpreter Friday. “I wasn't expecting a :9 3/5. So, of course, I was very, very happy with the work.”

Ochoa purchased the Iowa-bred, who is out of multiple stakes winner Meadow Bride (Runaway Groom), for $50,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“Of course the pedigree was a good thing,” Ochoa said of the colt's appeal last fall. “I paid attention to that, but also I liked the conformation.”

In addition to Friday's bullet worker, GOP was also represented by a trio of juveniles who worked the week's second fastest furlong time of :9 4/5.

“I am very happy with this week's results,” Ochoa said. “These horses have been working for months and these results couldn't have happened without the work of the whole team.”

GOP Racing Stable has 18 horses slated to sell at next week's OBS sale, none of the group was purchased for more than $55,000 last year.

“Last year when I was planning to buy, I was looking for very good horses who would train on well and would sell well this year,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa has been consigning under the GOP Racing Stable banner since 2018. His 2022 March consignment was led by Hard to Figure (Hard Spun), a $40,000 Keeneland September purchase who sold for $200,000. Trained by Bob Baffert on behalf of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, the sophomore was a narrowly beaten runner-up in the Feb. 4 GIII Robert B. Lewis S.

Asked if he had another graded stakes performer in his 2023 consignment, Ochoa said, “It could be similar,” before quickly adding, “Or it might be even better.”

A filly from the first crop of multiple graded stakes winner Enticed (hip 631) equaled the week's fastest quarter-mile time when she worked in :20 3/5 Friday for Omar Ramirez Bloodstock. The gray filly is out of Love's Illusion (Tapit), a half-sister to graded winner Unchained Melody (Smart Strike) and the dam of stakes-placed J C's a Legend (Lea).

The OBS March sale will be held next Monday through Wednesday with bidding beginning each day at 11 a.m.

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2023 Mating Plans, Presented By Spendthrift: Tracy Farmer

With the 2023 season upon us, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here is what Tracy Farmer had to say about his broodmare band for 2023.

We had a great few years on the track and we retired our GI Belmont Stakes Winner Sir Winston to Crestwood Farm in Lexington, KY this year, so we will offer him a lot of support both in the stallion barn now and in the sales ring in the future. We generally only keep about 10 mares, but we have bought some new mares to support Sir Winston as we plan to breed more than a dozen mares to him in 2023.

ALYDORABLE (m, 13, Arch–Esprit D'Escalier) booked to Sir Winston.

She is a stakes placed Arch mare that has already produced a nice stakes winner by Quality Road. She has a daughter by Ghostzapper that is the dam of multiple stakes winning 3-year-old Girl Trouble, and we want to support Sir Winston with some proven mares, and she is a great match for him. Awesome Again's son Ghostzapper has done great with Arch mares, with Grade I winners like Contested and Nucky.

TROPHY GIRL (m, 10, Warrior's Reward–Storm West) booked to Good Magic.

We generally do not breed to many first year stallions but a few years ago we really were excited about Good Magic and felt like Trophy Girl would be a very good fit. She is a big mare, about 16.3h, had a lot of talent, and broadly speaking, the Smart Strike line has done quite well over the El Prado line. We felt like Good Magic might benefit from a mare with some size to her and he could add speed while not sacrificing our chance to breed a classic horse. The resulting foal was Blazing Sevens, who won the GI Champagne S. this year. She will go back to Good Magic.

BAKSHEESH (f, 4, Summer Front–Spider Dust) booked to Sir Winston.

We bought this very good looking mare specifically to be bred to Sir Winston. She was a stakes-winning 2-year-old at Woodbine and Sid Fernando really liked her pedigree to match up with Sir Winston's. We wanted to buy some mares that were fast and precocious. Don't forget, Sir Winston was also a stakes-winning 2-year-old, so we expect him to sire precocity despite the fact that he trained on to win the Belmont and graded stakes later in his career.

SKYGAZE (m, 6, American Pharoah–Skyscape) booked to Tapit.

Skygaze was champion older mare in Canada in 2021 and we retired her in the middle of 2022. She actually won a Grade III as a 2-year-old but was disqualified, and we felt like she was worth going all the way to the top. Her dam has produced five black-type horses so the family is very strong. We felt like this mare could really use A.P. Indy, and Tapit has a great strike rate with Empire Maker line mares as he has three graded-stakes winners on that cross out of 12 attempts.

LA GRAN BAILADORA (m, 16, Afleet Alex–Affirmed Dancer) booked to Ghostzapper.

She is the dam of Sir Winston (Awesome Again) and also the grand-dam of One Timer (Trappe Shot), who won a Grade II last year. We had a Ghostzapper filly out of her that we felt was very talented but had an injury and we were forced to retire her early. If we can get another foal by Ghostzapper that showed her talent, by the same sire line as Sir Winston, we will be in great shape.

GILDED LILY (m, 9, Speightstown–Handpainted) booked to Sir Winston.

From the moment we retired Sir Winston, we wanted to find some fast fillies by Speightstown to breed to him. On paper, this filly has all the things we look for. She comes from the family of Touch Gold–which makes her 3×4 to Deputy Minister– historically strong inbreeding with Awesome Again as we see in horses like Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). Gilded Lily's dam is by A.P. Indy, and Awesome Again and his son Ghostzapper have done great with A.P. Indy line mares.

LA BOHEMIAN (f, 4, Tiznow–La Rambla) booked to Sir Winston.

This filly was a homebred of ours and she is a half sister to two very talented and fast stakes-level sprinters. Needless to say, Tiznow has done well under Awesome Again (Paynter/Oxbow/ Bravazzo etc) but, more importantly, her dam, La Rambla, is by City Zip, who is a half-brother to Ghostzapper. So we know the family has an affinity for Awesome Again.

IMMORTAL LIFE (IRE) (m, 11, Iffraaj {GB}- Pursuit of Life {GB}) booked to Not This Time.

This is a mare we are very high on. Her first foal is graded-stakes winner Neptune's Storm (Stormy Atlantic), who is $10K short of being a millionaire. The 3-year-old filly out of the mare is Fearless Angel (More Than Ready), who was beaten just a nose in a stake as a 2-year-old last year. Not this Time has sired Grade I winner Just One Time, who is out of a Gone West line mare, just like this one. Immortal Life's best foal is by a Storm Cat line as well, and although Not this Time is primarily a dirt stallion, he has gotten some very good horses from European families such as Epicenter.

Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.

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Sibelius to Golden Shaheen

Jun Park and Delia Nash's Sibelius (Not This Time), winner of his last two Florida starts including Gulfstream's GIII Mr. Prospector S., is headed to Dubai to run in the G1 Golden Shaheen Mar. 25 at Meydan Racecourse.

“We have accepted an invitation to go to Dubai,” trainer Jerry O'Dwyer said. “He came out of his last race good and is doing really well.”

Sibelius, the winner of the Lite the Fuse S. at Pimlico last fall, followed up his New Year's Eve Mr. Prospector score with another victory in the Pelican S. at Tampa Feb. 11.

“He put it all together that day,” O'Dwyer said. “The Mr. Prospector worked out a bit different than the way he had been running. He was in behind the speed getting dirt in his face and had to rate a little bit and then tip out and go do it. He had to do everything like a proper racehorse does. He didn't get everything his own way.”

In the six-furlong Pelican, Sibelius set a stakes record 1:08.75, just .08 off the track record.

“I was very impressed with him, because he really had to battle off and fend off that other horse [Doctor Oscar] that put it to him the whole way,” O'Dwyer said. “He really had to dig in deep to put that horse away towards the wire.”

According to O'Dwyer, Sibelius will continue his preparations at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, before leaving for Dubai next month.

“He'll have a couple breezes here at Palm Meadows and then he'll ship out. He'll probably have his last breeze on [Mar.] 10. He doesn't need a lot of hard training,” he said. “He'll have a couple of half-mile breezes. The plan is to breeze him on the 10th, check him over on the 11th and, if all is well, get on the plane on the 12th. He might have a little blowout, maybe an easy three-eighths in :38 [seconds] or something, just to let him stretch his legs over the track out there.”

Previously, O'Dwyer traveled to Dubai in 2020 with Grade II winner Shotski, fourth in Gulfstream's GII Fountain of Youth S., to contest the UAE Derby. The card was ultimately canceled following the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.

“We're excited. I love shipping horses, but I don't like shipping them anywhere unless I think they're live, and I do think he's a very nice, genuine horse and hopefully, he can get a nice piece of it out there,” O'Dwyer said.

He added, “It was kind of our target all along if everything went according to plan,” he added. “Our long-term goal since the end of last year was to go to Dubai with him if he kept continuing to run well and progress.”

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Uncle Mo’s Bishops Bay Gives Trainer Brad Cox Win #2,000

5th-Fair Grounds, $70,000, Msw, 2-18, 3yo, 6f, 1:10.07, ft, 3/4 length.
BISHOPS BAY (c, 3, Uncle Mo–Catch My Drift {SW & GISP, $280,540}, by Pioneerof the Nile) was a popular wagering choice for his career bow, breaking from the gates as the 1-2 chalk under jockey Florent Geroux. With good early speed from mid pack, the $450,000 Keeneland yearling moved between rivals to just sit just off the flank of pacesetter Ocean City (American Pharoah) through a quick opening quarter in :22.14. Applying consistent pressure to that early leader into the far turn, Bishops Bay took over under his own power as the top pair swung into the turn. A game First Mission (Street Sense) made a late run down the stretch but Bishops Bay had enough of a gap built up to hold off his stablemate by three-quarters of a length for a Brad Cox exacta. Ocean City came home fourth while Unload (Gun Runner) and St. John's (Hard Spun) were the last two home. Catch My Drift, herself an accomplished race mare, is also responsible for Strava (Into Mischief), MSP, $282,340. Her 2-year-old Constitution colt brought $575,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale and she dropped a filly by Improbable last year before visiting Not This Time for the 2023 season. Sales History: $450,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $42,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Spendthrift Farm LLC, Steve Landers Racing LLC, Martin S. Schwartz, Michael Dubb, Ten Strike Racing, Jim Bakke, Titletown Racing, LLC, Kueber Racing, LLC, Big Easy Racing LLC, Winners Win, Michael Caruso & WinStar Farm, LLC; B-WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox.

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