Post Time scores a $60K Allowance at Pimlico Sept.22. (Jim McCue/MJC)
David Joseph/ Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md. – Hillwood Stable’s champion Maryland-bred Post Time, who suffered his first career loss last month, returns home with designs on starting a new win streak in Saturday’s $100,000 City of Laurel at Laurel Park.
The 13th running of the City of Laurel for 3-year-olds is the first of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race Thanksgiving Saturday program followed by the Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies, also sprinting seven furlongs, and the 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small for 3-year-olds and up.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Post Time was third, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, in the seven-furlong Perryville Oct. 21 at Keeneland finishing behind Grade 3 winner Raise Cain, who had run in more graded-stakes than Post Time had races, and Dr. Venkman, who had gone 2-0 in California. It was the first road trip for Post Time, following four victories at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course by a combined 17 lengths.
“He got off the van from Kentucky and we had to send him to the racetrack because it didn’t take anything out of him,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “He’s awesome. He’s doing great.”
Russell’s husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, was aboard Post Time in the Perryville, where they trailed a field of six into the far turn. They tipped out at the top of the stretch and rallied between horses to get up for third while closing on the top pair. It was 5 ½ lengths back to fourth-place finisher Loyal Company.
“I was really happy with him. Sheldon just sort of said, ‘Honestly, if you look at how he’s run every time, has he ever really had to come off the bridle and get on his belly?’ He’s always been so much the best,” Russell said. “Sheldon just kind of felt like when he really had to call on him, he probably had to sit on him a little longer at the head of the lane and wait for a little bit of room rather than come 10 wide.
“But, when he kind of asked him for run he was probably a little confused and Sheldon said once he figured it out, it was like ‘Bam,’” she added. “You kind of go back and go, ‘Oh, a little bit of a longer stretch and maybe we catch them,’ but I don’t think like that. I think he ran great, and I think it’s a good steppingstone for what’s to come. The whole point of going there is, of course you want to win, but he’s also a nice horse and that was his first real test away from home.”
Post Time is 4-0 in Maryland, having won all three of his starts last year when he was named Maryland’s champion 2-year-old male, capped by a 3 ¾-length triumph in the Maryland Juvenile. Minor issues kept the Frosted colt away from the races for 295 days before returning to beat his elders in an open six-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 22 at Pimlico, again rallying from last.
Sheldon Russell, aboard for both races this year, returns to ride from Post 4 of nine.
“Timing-wise, it’s the [right] move to run him against 3-year-olds at home. There’s a lot beyond that,” Brittany Russell said. “I’m happy with him. I think he has a bright future and there’s a lot to look forward to.”
LC Racing homebred Ninetyprcentmaddie is a five-time winner, three in stakes, two of them in open company including an off-the-turf edition of the six-furlong Carle Place Oct. 22 at Aqueduct in his most recent start. Based at Parx with trainer Butch Reid, he has made one prior start at Laurel, beaten a head when second to Perform in the 1 1/8-mile Federico Tesio April 15.
John Salzman Jr., Fred Wasserloos and Anthony Geruso’s Coffeewithchris won Laurel’s Heft at 2 and the Miracle Wood in February over Post Time’s stablemate, Prince of Jericho. He has placed in five other stakes, running third to Post Time in the Maryland Juvenile, and was fifth by 2 ½ lengths in the Tesio before running seventh in the 148th Preakness (G1). Third by less than a length in the seven-furlong Star de Naskra July 29 at Laurel, he has not raced since finishing eighth in the Robert Hilton Memorial Aug. 25 at Charles Town.
Two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox will send out Spendthrift Farm et. al’s Giant Mischief, who won two of three starts at 2 and was second in Remington Park’s Springboard Mile. The Into Mischief colt that fetched $475,000 as a yearling has raced twice this year, running sixth in the Rebel (G2) and winning a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 20 at Churchill Downs.
Other prominent shippers are Let It Ride and Veeson. R A Hill Stable and Reeves Thoroughbreds’ Let It Ride went unraced at 2 and has run three times this year with back-to-back wins over his elders by eight combined lengths at Aqueduct heading into his stakes debut. Chuck Russo’s homebred Veeson has been third or better in eight of 10 career tries and ran his win streak to three in the seven-furlong Jump Start Oct. 24 at Parx against fellow Pennsylvania-breds.
Also entered are Laurel-based Star de Naskra winner Super Accelerate, stakes-placed Praetorian Guard and Byk.
