Multiple Graded Winner Scheduled to Leave for Del Mar Oct. 23
LAUREL, MD – Everything remains on course for Hillwood Stable’s Maryland-bred and based multiple graded-stakes winner Post Time following his final local workout Saturday ahead of a scheduled start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
With assistant trainer and exercise rider Emma Wolfe aboard, Post Time went four furlongs in 49.60 seconds over the main track at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., ranking seventh-fastest of 20 horses.
It was the third work for the 4-year-old Post Time since his dominant 11 ½-length victory in the one-mile Polynesian Sept. 14 at Laurel Park, where trainer Brittany Russell is based. He also had half-mile breezes in 49.60 seconds Oct. 2 and 48.60 Oct. 9.
“He went good. He went a half-mile in 49 and change and did it very well,” Russell said. “It’s been quiet and good, and that’s what we’re looking for. Day to day, everything is going the way we need it to.”
Maryland’s champion 2-year-old male of 2022, Post Time won his first career stakes that fall in the Maryland Juvenile and earned his first graded-stakes triumph in the Feb. 17 General George (G3), both sprinting seven furlongs at Laurel, following up with a victory in the April 6 Carter (G2) at Aqueduct.
Never worse than third in 12 starts, nine of them wins, Post Time ran second in the Westchester (G3) and Met Mile (G1) and third in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney (G1) Aug. 3 at Saratoga, his two-turn debut. One-mile races are conducted around two turns at Del Mar.
Post Time is tied for second with the second-most points (22) on the Breeders’ Cup leaderboard for the Dirt Mile, trailing only Preakness (G1) and Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner Seize the Grey. Three horses – National Treasure, the Met Mile winner that finished behind Post Time in the Whitney; Three Technique and Japan-based Crown Pride – have already earned automatic spots in the field, which is limited to 14 starters.
“We’re all just really focused right now. We’re trying to keep everything going and take it day by day,” Russell said. “There’s lot of things that need to be taken care of, because we’re leaving for a couple days. Everybody’s really focused, everybody’s good. Obviously, we’re all really excited. We’re looking forward to it.”
Accompanied by Wolfe, Post Time is scheduled to leave for California from Newark, N.J. Oct. 23. The rest of the team including Hillwood’s Ellen Charles, Russell and her husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, who will ride in the Dirt Mile, are scheduled to join them Oct. 30.
“Emma’s going to travel with him and she will be out there with him,” Russell said. “He’s going to fly middle of the week, so he will get a skip over the racetrack. Emma will breeze him like a solo half and let him gallop out. The main work is done now. It’ll just be some maintenance the week before, let him feel the track and all that.”
After racing three times at both 2 and 3, Post Time has run seven times this year starting with a season-opening 6 ½-length victory in the one-mile Jennings against Maryland-bred/sired horses Jan. 28 at Laurel. He sits less than $3,000 away from becoming a millionaire, with $997,910 in purse earnings.
Post Time would be the second millionaire for Charles, following retired Grade 3 winner Cordmaker ($1,004,380), and the first for Russell. He has already surpassed her previous top-earning horse, retired filly Hello Beautiful, who was bred by Charles.
“As long as he’s healthy, he’s the kind of horse that thrives on racing,” Russell said. “We’re all lucky to be in Post Time’s world, really.”