Post Time sharp in Jennings triumph
Frank Vespe- January 28, 2024
The Jennings Stakes at Laurel Park was delayed a week and took place on a sloppy, sealed racing strip. None of that mattered to Post Time, however, as the newly minted four-year-old laid waste to a strong field to win for the sixth time in seven career outings.
Post Time had been life-and-death to win the CIty of Laurel in his prior start, and the Jennings field came back surprisingly salty for a state-bred stake. Among Post Time’s rivals here were Seven’s Eleven, a winner of four of five including two stakes, and Grade 2 winner Double Crown, who bested elders in the Manfuso last out.
The quality of his rivals was, perhaps one concern. The condition of the track – Laurel had lost four consecutive racing days prior to Saturday, was sloppy, and had shown a decided rail bias, particularly on Saturday’s card – was another.
But Brittany Russell, who trains Post Time for Ellen Charles’ Hillwood Stable operation, said she wasn’t worried.
“He’s really matured. I mean, he trains up at Fair Hill now, and he came down here because we didn’t know if we were running last weekend, and he’s been a professional,” she explained. “I’ve been impressed with him every single day, if he was locked in a barn or if he had to go to the racetrack, so I’ve been really happy with him.”
His rivals probably wished he’d been locked in the barn Sunday. Under jockey Sheldon Russell, Brittany Russell’s husband, Post Time was content to bide his time in the rear of the field about seven lengths off the early speed.
That early speed was provided by Holy Synchronicity, who held a head advantage over All Threes after an opening half-mile in 47.35 seconds. By that time, Seven’s Eleven, the 5-2 second choice, was nicely tucked in in third along the rail under Angel Cruz, who’d won the Geisha aboard Malibu Moonshine one race prior, while Double Crown was in fourth, three lengths behind the lead.
Rounding the race’s one turn, Post Time began to inch up closer to the leaders. Entering the stretch, Russell tried to find room inside and out, and when he finally did, inside the quarter pole, Post Time surged clear to win by 6 ½ lengths in a sharp 1:36.73 for the one-turn mile – more than three seconds faster than fillies and mares had run the distance one race prior in the Geisha.
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“You know what Sheldon said when he came back?” Russell asked-and-answered. “It doesn’t matter. [With] good horses, if they want to run today, they’ll run. It doesn’t matter what part of the racetrack they’re on.”
Seven’s Eleven held second, a couple lengths clear of All Threes, who was third. Off as the odds-on favorite, Post Time paid $3.40 to win, and the exacta returned $4.00 for a one-dollar wager.
Post Time improved to five-for-five on his home track. The lone blemish on his overall resume was a third-place finish, by just over a length, in Keeneland’s Perryville Stakes behind graded winner Raise Cain.
The next spot for Post Time could be the Grade 3 General George at Laurel February 17. That has the disadvantage of being slightly quick back, just three weeks away, but the advantages of being over Post Time’s home track and at a seven-furlong distance at which he already owns three wins.
“You hate that it’s back in three weeks, but you know, we’re definitely going to see how he comes out of it and consider it,” the trainer said. “The George being at home and on his racetrack and everything it’s silly not to consider, but if he gives us any indication he needs more time they will look elsewhere.”
Post Time was bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman, and Milton Higgins. He is by Frosted out of the stakes-winning Fairbanks mare Vielsalm.
As she left the winner’s circle, Russell turned back. “He pulled me out of the freezer,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve been cold.”
NOTES In the Geisha, one race earlier, Malibu Moonshine, with Angel Cruz up for trainer Charlton Baker, mounted a furious late rally to win by a neck over the Russell-trained Northern Glow and Royal Whisper for trainer Michael Gorham. Now four, the daughter of Bourbon Courage earned her first win since the last start of her two-year-old season. She’s won four of seven career starts, and all her victories have come in her five Maryland starts. “She always breaks slow, so I knew I have to save ground and then come on the outside running. And that’s what I did,” Cruz said…
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