Tag: not this time

No More Time Sharp in Front-Running Sam F. Davis Victory

Sent away as the somewhat surprising 33-10 favorite in Saturday's $250,000 GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs, Morplay Racing's No More Time (Not This Time) won the pace battle and ultimately the war, as he had enough in the tank late to hold off 'TDN Rising Star' Agate Road (Quality Road) and earn 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. West Saratoga (Exaggerator), winner of last year's GIII Iroquois S. and a distant second to the G3 Saudi Derby-bound Book'em Danno (Bucchero) in Tampa's Pasco S. Jan. 13, also attended the fast fractions and stayed on bravely for third.

With Jose Ortiz opting for Agate Road, it was Paco Lopez at the controls astride No More Time and he bounced the colt aggressively away from gate five to lead early from second choice Change of Command (Into Mischief). West Saratoga was hung out four deep into the backstretch, while Agate Road–returning to the dirt since debuting over the surface at Saratoga last summer–was void of any speed and dropped out to be a detached last.

Though he was forced through splits of :23.52 for the quarter and a testing :46.61 for the half, No More Time was still going nicely and met a three-wide bid from West Saratoga midway on the turn as the blinkered Change of Command began to back out of it. In the meantime, Agate Road commenced a rally at the 3 1/2-furlong marker and was weaving his way into contention nearing the stretch. Firmly in front passing the three-sixteenths pole, No More Time was asked for his best as Lopez took his trademark look back at the competition over his right shoulder and he gutted it out as Agate Road, wide into the stretch, took good ground off of him in the final yards. West Saratoga just lasted for third over Elysian Meadows (City of Light).

There was some drama at the break, as Everdoit (Gary D) dropped his rider Huber Villa-Gomez after hitting the gate and ran through the outside rail at about the five-furlong marker. Track announcer Jason Beem tweeted later that the gelding had been caught by the outriders. After reviewing the start, stewards ruled that no changes would be made.

A wide second sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream on debut Sept. 9, No More Time shot away to graduate by 6 3/4 lengths going the one-turn mile Oct. 22 and did not see action again until the Mucho Macho Man S. over that same track and trip on New Year's Day. Slowly away as the 21-10 second choice, he took the overland route around the turn, but nevertheless traveled into the race looking a threat at the quarter pole. He wasn't able to sustain that bid, finishing fifth, but the gamblers took a forgiving approach Saturday afternoon after No More Time was scratched out of the GIII Holy Bull S. last weekend.

Pedigree Notes:

No More Time is the 31st stakes winner and 14th graded winner for his newly turned 10-year-old sire and is bred on the same cross responsible for GI Madison S. heroine Just One Time. The late Speightstown is now the broodmare sire of 65 stakes winners, 25 at the graded level.

Baroness Juliette was purchased by trainer Clinton Stuart for $12,000 as a 2-year-old at Keeneland November in 2017 and was a maiden winner for a $10,000 tag at Prairie Meadows in nine starts at three in 2018. No More Time is her second foal and her third, the now-juvenile West Virginia-bred colt Mor d'Oro (Mor Spirit), was sold in utero for $7,000 at KEENOV in 2021. She is the dam of a yearling filly by Golden Years, also bred in the Mountaineer State.

Saturday, Tampa Bay Downs
SAM F. DAVIS S.-GIII, $200,000, Tampa Bay Downs, 2-10, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:43.26, ft.
1–NO MORE TIME, 120, c, 3, by Not This Time
                1st Dam: Baroness Juliette, by Speightstown
                2nd Dam: Juliette Ava, by Medaglia d'Oro
                3rd Dam: Cherokee Crossing, by Cherokee Colony
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($40,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Morplay Racing LLC; B-MAMAS Thoroughbreds, LLC (IA); T-Jose Francisco D'Angelo; J-Paco Lopez. $120,000. Lifetime Record: 4-2-1-0, $156,780. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Agate Road, 124, c, 3, Quality Road–Yellow Agate, by Gemologist. ($650,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables LLC; B-Chc Inc. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $40,000.
3–West Saratoga, 122, c, 3, Exaggerator–Mo Wicked, by Uncle Mo. ($11,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Harry L. Veruchi; B-Two Hearts Farm II LLC (KY); T-Larry W. Demeritte. $20,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 5 1/4, HD. Odds: 3.30, 4.30, 31.00.
Also Ran: Elysian Meadows, Fulmineo, Crazy Mason, Tireless, El Principito, Patriot Spirit, Copper Tax, Change of Command, Everdoit.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

 

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Goodnight Olive Retires, To Be Bred to Not This Time

Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), the Eclipse Award-winning Champion Female Sprinter of 2022 and 2023, who sold for $6 million at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, will be retired and bred to Not This Time, according to a press release from John Stewart's Resolute Farm.

Goodnight Olive earned $2.196 million on the racetrack, winning nine of 12 races while never finishing out of the money. She won back-to-back runnings of the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

Following her Breeders' Cup win, Goodnight Olive returned to Payson Park in Florida under the guidance of trainer Chad Brown, where she was set to race in 2024. Instead, the decision was made to retire her.

Chad Brown expressed mixed emotions about her retirement. “Olive had a legendary career on the track, and she has been a fixture at Payson Park for the last four years,” he said. “I can't wait to see her career continue as a broodmare at Resolute Farm.”

Gavin O'Connor, General Manager of Resolute Farm, said, “We purchased Olive at Fasig-Tipton as a broodmare prospect and had hoped to continue her racing career. At the end of the day, these athletes are used to performing at the highest level and unless Chad and his team thought she could continue to compete at that level we always knew this was a likely path for her. She really doesn't have anything else to prove. We are so thankful for the opportunity to play a part in such a wonderful horse's career.”

Noel Murphy, the newly appointed farm manager at Resolute Farm, and former farm manager for Helen Alexander at Middlebrook Farm said, “Olive is settling on our farm in Midway with some good company. Esteemed Breeders' Cup champions Caravel and Pizza Bianca are in adjoining paddocks. Every day when I go to the barn, I am amazed by the presence of the incredible mares on our farm such as Puca, Queen Caroline, Goddess Pele, and many other high-quality mares joining these three Breeders Cup champions.”

“After months of meticulous research and decision-making, the team believes this pairing holds immense potential to produce a standout racehorse with an exceptional pedigree have already produced some great racing horses like Epicenter and the 2023 Eclipse winner Up To The Mark,” said Chelsey Stone, Resolute Breeding Director, of the mating to Not This Time. “The Taylor family and the team at Taylor Made Farm are exactly the type of partnership we want to have in the industry. Last year we purchased fellow broodmare Goddess Pele from them at Fasig-Tipton and a great More Than Ready filly in a private sale who we named Virgin Colada and will start her training for the track later this year. Breeding Olive to Not This Time brings the relationship full circle.”

Steve Laymon of First Row Partners, who campaigned Goodnight Olive, said, “We are pleased with the team at Resolute Farm acquiring Olive and their dedication to keeping high-quality racehorses like Olive within the United States, as there is a tendency for them to be acquired by foreign buyers. Not This Time has emerged as a prominent stallion in North America and with top-quality mares like Olive I expect an exceptional racing prospect.”

In 2023, Resolute Farm acquired the former Shadwell Stud property in Midway, Kentucky, and has since resumed horse operations on the farm as of January, 2024.

Goodnight Olive's name is a nod to the salutation used by workers and performers at the renowned New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City, paying homage to the legendary Broadway Flapper ghost, Olive Thomas, according to the press release.

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Not This Time’s Waitlist Proves Toughest On Tampa Debut

4th-Tampa Bay Downs, $32,000, Msw, 2-3, 3yo, 1 1/8mT, 1:48.37, fm, neck.
WAITLIST (c, 3, Not This Time–Grandezza, by Scat Daddy) opened his account in highly impressive fashion at first asking going nine furlongs over the Tampa turf course Saturday afternoon. By the sire of recently crowned champion Up to the Mark and sent out by that one's trainer Todd Pletcher, the $240,000 Keeneland September acquisition was void of early speed and settled one from the tail. Asked to improve his position leaving the five-furlong pole by Emisael Jaramillo, the dark bay colt had tacked on to the back of the leading group and raced in about seventh position entering the second turn. Consigned to an overland trip around the bend, Waitlist had no choice but to launch his bid five deep off the final corner. He confronted narrow second favorite and perfect-trip Stop the Press (Uncle Mo)–a $1.5-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling trying the grass after three unplaced efforts on the dirt–nearing the midstretch marker, was overtaken for a stride or two with time ticking away and re-rallied to take it by a neck at a starting price of 44-5, double his morning line of 4-1. Breeder David McCarty paid $210,000 for Grandezza at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale and bought her back on a bid of $340,000 at Keeneland September the following year. A maiden winner of better than $134,000 from ages two to four, Grandezza is also represented by a yearling colt by Yoshida (Jpn) and she is due to Audible this season. Waitlist's second dam Tap Mate (Pleasant Tap) is a full-sister to GSW & GISP Tap Day and to Street Mate (Street Cry {Ire}), whose Grade I-winning daughter and $2-million earner Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) sells as part of the Lothenbach Dispersal Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton. Street Mate is also responsible for GSW King Cause (Creative Cause). Sales history: $240,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $18,560. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-Centennial Farms; B-David McCarty (KY); T-Todd A Pletcher.

 

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Eclipse Awards 2023: A Rough Morning Line For Horse of the Year

The winners in 10 equine and seven human categories will be revealed beginning around 7:30 Thursday evening at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. A who's who of the American Thoroughbred industry will be dressed to the nines as the newest group of champions is announced.

Of the equine divisions–as is frequently the case–the majority feature little suspense, while there exists a fair bit of intrigue and arguments to be made for multiple horses in the older dirt male division, the female sprint division, the female turf category, and, not least, for the granddaddy of them all: the statuette for American Horse of the Year for 2023.

By the estimation of this writer, five horses amassed a body of work deserving of a spot on the ballot for the top prize. I am not a morning-line maker, so please no critiquing of the odds, but to follow is a highly unscientific attempt at handicapping those who could be announced as Horse of the Year finalists during Thursday's ceremonies (Ed's note: while the divisional finalists were announced a few weeks ago, the finalists for Horse of the Year were not revealed at that time).

White Abarrio (Race Day, 5-2): To win the GI Whitney S. and GI Breeders' Cup Classic consecutively and in a fashion as convincingly as he did, the Rick Dutrow, Jr.-trainee got my vote for Thursday's top honors. Though he was fairly well-beaten by the candidate below in the GI Met Mile–while admittedly in receipt of six pounds–the effort was anything but a disaster, and he did turn the tables in no uncertain terms in the Whitney, when Cody's Wish was sportingly tried over a stamina-sapping nine furlongs. He's my idea of Horse of the Year, but perhaps not the likeliest winner.

Cody's Wish (Curlin, 6-5): The lone blemish in the Whitney aside, and I am willing to be forgiving of it, Cody's Wish's campaign was brilliant, as he won three times at Grade I level (one more than White Abarrio) and once at Grade II. To take something of a contrarian point of view, his Vosburgh didn't exactly pass the eye (or speed) test and he was very game–if not spectacular–in defending his GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. The story is heartwarming and it sadly turned heartbreaking, but I am duty bound to judge horses' ability. Sentimentality might win the day and there were some misguided opinions that 'the story matters sometimes' and not what these athletes did on the racetrack, but I went the other direction in a category this guy may well win.

Elite Power (Curlin, 8-1): One of his spectacular sire's three Eclipse winners last year and it would be a surprise if he didn't become the third back-to-back winner in the sprint division. But did he do enough to be HOTY? Probably not. The big chestnut won the season series with fellow finalist Gunite (Gun Runner) by a score of 3-1 (including the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint) and he was dominating in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Enormous talent who has every chance to make his mark as a stallion at Juddmonte, but no better than the distant third choice here.

Up to the Mark (Not This Time, 20-1): In another year, Up to the Mark–who will be favored in the male turf division–may have had a say here, as he sensationally won Grade I races at a mile, nine furlongs and 10 furlongs, and was hardly disgraced when trying a mile and a half for the first time in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. It is no stretch to mention him in the same breath as Bricks and Mortar and Wise Dan–he's not out of his depth there–but unlike those two, he is an unlikely winner here, though it wouldn't be a total shock if he made the final three.

Idiomatic (Curlin, 50-1): She is regally bred and it would be a stretch to call her a 'rags-to-riches' story given her pedigree and connections. But it's fair to say she surprised even those closest to her in 2023, as she went from a Turfway allowance win on Jan. 4 to close an eight-for-nine season with a tough-as-nails victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. According to published reports, she remains in training as a 5-year-old in 2024. That's good news for fans, and bad news for anyone who owns anything in the Distaff division. Who knows, maybe she scoops this award at next year's ceremony.

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