Not This Time
It had been a bit of a tough run for Skyfall Thoroughbreds' Geoffrey Von Honste, truth be told, and he was thinking that it was time to call it quits. Covid had been hard on business, there were a couple of bad breaks with the horses, and things just didn't seem to be working out for him in the Thoroughbred game. But they say that life is what happens when you're making other plans, and on Thursday, the thing that happened was that he became a Royal Ascot-winning breeder when...
When Aidan O'Brien resurrected City Of Troy (Justify) to win the Derby, he was rightly hailed as a genius. Sadly, it didn't take long for that piece of brilliance to be overshadowed by an expose-style documentary carried out by Ireland's national broadcaster [RTE] which concentrated on horses being sent to slaughter. Admittedly, the documentary featured mostly non-thoroughbreds but the build-up and reaction to the programme has dominated the mainstream coverage of this sport in recent times. Not O'Brien's moment of magic that arguably should have been celebrated more than it...
Wathnan Racing's Shareholder (Not This Time--Cloudy Dancer {GB}, by Invincible Spirit {Ire}) had only announced himself a G2 Norfolk Stakes candidate 12 days ago when winning Beverley's Two Year Old Trophy Conditions Stakes and made light of the quick turnaround to capture the Royal Ascot prize. Held on to by James Doyle early among the group racing up the centre, the Karl Burke-trained 12-1 shot was in front passing the two-furlong pole and asserted to score by a length from Tropical Storm (GB) (Eqtidaar {Ire}), with a head back to...
5th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, post time: 6:56 p.m. ET Some 120 members of the first-crop of Horse of the Year Authentic went under the hammer at public auction in 2023, and the most expensive of them, INNOVATOR, debuts for BC Stables and trainer D. Wayne Lukas Thursday beneath the same Twin Spires where the sire won the 2020 GI Kentucky Derby. Bred by Peter Blum, also the breeder of Authentic, the dark bay colt was hammered down for $900,000 at the Keeneland September Sale, the dearest of the...
Debuting in Saturday's Two Year Old Trophy at Beverley, Wathnan Racing's €460,000 Arqana May Breeze Up purchase Shareholder (Not This Time) made the perfect start to point to Royal Ascot's juvenile features. Slowly away under James Doyle, the Karl Burke-trained 6-4 favourite quickly recovered to track his four rivals racing a touch freely without cover. Delivered to take a narrow lead approaching the furlong pole, he belied inexperience to hold the previous winner Moving Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) and score by a short head. "He was a little tardily away...
Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features a son of American stallion Not This Time. 2.40 Beverley, Cond, £50,000, 2yo, c/g, 5fT SHAREHOLDER (Not This Time) is the forecast favourite for this Two Year Old Trophy which has been won in recent times by a pair who went on to make an...
LOUISVILLE, KY-Sharp as a razor exiting the far gate, Clark Brewster and William and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Cogburn (Not This Time) wasted not time dusting off the cobwebs, coming home a 2 1/4-length winner in the GII Twin Spires Turf Sprint early on Saturday's Derby Day card. Given an 8-1 chance will making his 2024 debut, the 5-year-old broke in front but allowed Coppola (Into Mischief) and Mo Stash (Mo Town) to show the way through a :22.61 opening quarter over a course labeled 'good'. Taking a slight edge from...
When it comes to getting horses to the GI Kentucky Derby few have done more with less. Dennis Albaugh's Albaugh Family Stable doesn't have nearly the numbers of a Mike Repole or the partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables, but he keeps coming up with Derby starters. This year he has Catching Freedom (Constitution), the winner of the GII Louisiana Derby, who will be his tenth starter under the Twin Spires over the last seven years. The goal this time around is not to simply make into...
Kentucky Derby hopeful GSW No More Time (Not This Time) returned from a breeze Sunday morning with an injury which will knock him out of the GI Kentucky Derby, announced the colt's owner Rich Mendez, the founder of Morplay Racing, on X. The account stated in a release that there are still plans to head to Churchill Downs later in the week as well as provided a positive prognosis for a future return to the track. "Less than 24 hours after officially qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, No More Time...
The whole point of the breeze-ups is that the functionality of a pedigree is on display. Nowadays, in fact, breeze times are treated as though rendering more or less redundant all the painstaking surmise of the yearling sales. Pinhookers, having seen so many offbeat sires achieve knockout sales, can prioritize "run"—knowing that lot of prospectors won't even bother looking at the catalogue until the lots have shown their wares. But it's for precisely that reason that European breeze-up consignors have increasingly been able to repair a dismal separation between the...
Morplay Racing's No More Time (Not This Time), winner of the GIII Sam F. Davis S. and narrow runner-up in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, breezed a half-mile in :48.60 (8/52) Saturday morning at Palm Meadows Training Center in preparation for a planned start in the GI Kentucky Derby. "He worked by himself. He went good and also had a strong gallop-out," trainer Jose D'Angelo said. "Everything's good. We're hoping to get into the Kentucky Derby." Prior to Saturday's three major prep races at Santa Anita, Keeneland, and...
by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - With a pair of colts topping the seven-figure mark, the tempo picked up during the second session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Wednesday. With 144 horses sold Wednesday for $25,488,000, the session average was $177,000--up 6.2% from last year's corresponding session--and the median of $87,500 declined 2.8% from a year ago. The buy-back rate was 31.8%. "I thought it was a very good session," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "It felt like...