Post Time takes the Carter (Joe Labozzetta)
By Keith McCalmont – NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Hillwood Stable’s Maryland-bred Post Time won for the eighth time in nine starts, rallying to a narrow neck score in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Carter presented by NYRA Bets, a seven-furlong sprint for older horses, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The Carter kicked off the stakes action on a lucrative 11-race card headlined by the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino in Race 10. Bolstering the Wood Memorial Day card is the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle in Race 8; Grade 3, $175,000 Distaff in Race 6; and the Listed $150,000 Bay Shore in Race 9.
Ellen Charles of Hillwood Stable said the victory from the grandson of the Maryland-bred Opening Verse mare Merriweather was a meaningful one.
“His granddam is Merriweather, and my grandmother was Marjorie Merriweather,” Charles said. “I always wanted something out of that mare, because my grandmother was a remarkable woman. And you know what? I do believe he’s gotten something from her. He’s been exciting.
“I was born in New York and grew up in Maryland, but it means everything,” added Charles of the Carter score. “It’s so exciting that these beautiful animals can do what he did today and that he pulled it off.”
Trained by Brittany Russell, the 4-year-old Frosted colt, sent to post as the 4-5 mutuel favorite, won for the first time outside of his native state under a picture-perfect ride from the trainer’s husband, jockey Sheldon Russell.
“Ellen has been supportive from the beginning, she’s awesome to train for, and for her to have a horse like him, it is super special, and I can’t believe we did it two years in a row,” said Brittany Russell, who won this event last year when it was a Grade 1 with 17-1 shot Doppelganger to pick up her first top-flight win. “Doppelganger was extremely special to us too, we knew he was a good horse. But when you are the favorite and you come into it, you feel a little more pressure maybe, but a lot of fun.”
Super Chow broke alertly from the outermost post 4 under regular rider Madison Olver and set a moderate opening quarter-mile in 24.38 seconds over the fast main track as the New York-bred Whittington Park stalked to her outside in second position with Castle Chaos riding the rail in third and Post Time in fourth in the compact field.
Super Chow, who arrived from Grade 3 scores at the Big A in the seven-furlong Toboggan and six-furlong Tom Fool Handicap, led the field into the turn with positions unchanged through a half-mile in 48.18.
Russell asked Post Time for his best with a wide move on the turn for home as Castle Chaos hugged a live rail with Super Chow still dictating terms, but beginning to drift out late in the lane as is his custom. Post Time rallied past Super Chow in the middle of the track inside the final sixteenth, surging in the final jumps to overtake the Dylan Davis-piloted Castle Chaos and secure the win in a final time of 1:24 flat. It was a further 1 1/4-lengths back to Super Chow in third with Whittington Park completing the order of finish. Petulante was scratched.
Sheldon Russell said he was concerned about both the slow pace and Super Chow’s tendency to drift.
“I just wanted to get him close enough turning for home where he just didn’t get outkicked, especially if Super Chow was going to get his own way,” Russell said. “I got him in a bad spot there and Super Chow was able to drift me and it would have been a worst nightmare if he didn’t get by today because it would have been my fault. Fair play to the horse, he got me out of a jackpot and he saved my marriage.”
The Robert Falcone, Jr.-trained Castle Chaos made amends for a distant sixth-place finish last out in the Listed Stymie traveling a one-turn mile on March 2 over a sloppy and sealed Big A main track. The 6-year-old Palace Malice gelding hit the board in both his prior graded efforts when third in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile Handicap presented by NYRA Bets in December here and second, by a nose to Tumbarumba, in the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper in January at Gulfstream Park.
Davis said he tried to save all the ground as Super Chow carried Post Time into the middle of the track.
“I took the rail all the way through and he got there and jumped like he was going to win,” Davis said. “[Super Chow] took the three horse [Post Time] all the way out and then the last seventy yards, he [Castle Chaos] got a little complacent. He started looking around a little bit, his ears started flickering. He kind of idled that last couple jumps, but he put a great effort up. I thought we were home free after that.”
Post Time, an $85,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale purchase, went 3-for-3 as a 2-year-old while racing exclusively at Laurel Park, topped by a win in the restricted Maryland Juvenile.
Last year, Post Time won an optional claimer in September at Pimlico Race Course before overcoming a slow start to finish third in the Perryville in October at Keeneland. He completed his sophomore season with a head score in the City of Laurel in November at Laurel Park.
The popular grey is now perfect in three starts this season, taking the restricted Jennings in January and the Grade 3 General George in February at Laurel ahead of his Carter coup.
Brittany Russell said Post Time could now target the one-mile Grade 1, $1 million Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.
“I think he would love a mile, so it is something to think about,” Russell said.
Bred by Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman & Milton P. Higgins, III, Post Time, out of the graded stakes-placed Fairbanks mare Vielsalm, banked $165,000 in victory and improved his record to 9-8-0-1. He returned $3.60 for a $2 win bet.
Live racing resumes Sunday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern.
