Multiple Graded-Stakes Winner Aimed at August Return to Races
Cap Classique Back on Turf for Sunday’s $100,000 Stormy Blues
Dual Maryland Million Winner Wicked Prankster Tops Saturday Feature
LAUREL, MD – It didn’t take long for Hillwood Stable’s multiple graded-stakes winner Post Time to get back in the swing of things following his runner-up finish in the $1 million Met Mile (G1) June 8 at Saratoga.
“He’s great. He came back in good shape,” Laurel Park-based trainer Brittany Russell said. “He shipped home the next day and he’s back on the track training. He’s Post Time, so he’s ready to get back to work.”
Home is the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., where Russell also has a string of horses overseen by assistant trainer and exercise rider Emma Wolfe and where Post Time and the entire team have been accepting congratulations since the race.
“It’s nice to be back home, and he’s gotten so many compliments,” Russell said. “A lot of people said a lot of good things about his race and it does, it makes you proud. Just to see the following he has. Everybody’s on his team, so it’s nice to see.”
Post Time has never been worse than third in 11 career starts, eight of them wins including Laurel’s 2023 City of Laurel and Feb. 17 General George (G3) and Aqueduct’s Carter (G2) April 6. He ran second in the Met Mile’s traditional prep, the May 3 Westchester (G3), at Aqueduct.
In the Met Mile, Post Time lined up against the likes of 2023 Preakness (G1) and Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup (G1) winner National Treasure; 2023 Whitney (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and Horse of the Year finalist White Abarrio; Blazing Sevens, runner-up to National Treasure in the Preakness; and multiple graded stakes winning millionaire Hoist the Gold.
The competition or the prestige of the Met Mile didn’t faze the good-feeling Post Time, who reared up on his hind legs as he and Wolfe walked to Saratoga’s main track the morning before the race. National Treasure led all the way in a popular 6 ¼-length triumph as Post Time came with a determined late run and emerged from a three-way photo a neck ahead of Hoist the Gold for second in his Grade 1 debut.
“That’s how I felt walking him over: He doesn’t know what we’re asking him to do here,” Russell said. “He just loves his job and he’s going to go out there and try. That’s just him.”
The question of what’s next for Post Time remains unanswered. He has won at distances from 5 ½ furlongs to one mile, his longest trip to date, and the connections plan to explore all options before settling on a spot.
“The decisions are getting more difficult now. It’s a good problem to have,” she said. “Do we try him a little bit further? I don’t know yet, I really don’t. I do know one thing: we’re going to give him a lot of time. He won’t run in July so we’ll just look at something in August, maybe at Saratoga.”
Sunday at Laurel, Russell will put DARRRS, Inc.’s Cap Classique back on the grass in the $100,000 Stormy Blues for 3-year-old fillies sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the Exceller turf course. Winner of last fall’s Smart Halo on Laurel’s main track, Cap Classique exits a fourth in the six-furlong Miss Preakness (G3) May 17 at historic Pimlico Race Course, her first start in 5 ½ months.
By Vino Rosso out of the Scat Daddy mare Sca Doodle, herself stakes placed on the turf, Cap Classique graduated in debut last August over the Colonial Downs turf, her only prior grass start.
“Her pedigree suggests that turf should be there. She broke her maiden on it and hopefully now with some seasoning it helps. It’s nice to run her here at home and, hopefully, it’s a good decision,” Russell said. “I’m looking around for spots for this filly and it’s a little tricky. I think she could probably go a little further. Looking at the Miss Preakness, it really wasn’t a bad effort off the bench. We kind of threw her to the wolves there. Unlucky probably not to be third that day, but she came out of it in good shape and she’s been training well.”
Dual Maryland Million Winner Wicked Prankster Tops Saturday Feature
Two-time defending Maryland Million Turf winner Wicked Prankster, owned and trained by Sam Davis, is entered to make his second start of the year in Saturday’s Race 8 feature, a second-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the Bowl Game turf course.
Wicked Prankster ran sixth, beaten three lengths, in a similar spot to open his season April 21 at Laurel. He led all the way to win the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Turf at Laurel in 2023 (1:48.28) and 2022 (1:49.44). Yomar Ortiz rides from Post 4 in a field of 11 that includes main-track-only entrants Tops the Chart and Frightland.
Trainer Brittany Russell entered The Elkstone Group-owned pair of The Addison Pour and Eldest Son. The Addison Pour has been beaten less than a length in each of his two starts this year, one each on the Laurel and Pimlico turf, while Eldest Son is set to make his first start since being claimed for $40,000 out of a runner-up finish – a neck ahead of The Addison Pour – April 21 at Laurel.
Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds’ homebred Hardspun Reason, trained by Graham Motion, chases a third straight victory in his first race since capturing a restricted allowance last October at Laurel. Street Copper, second to Wicked Prankster in the 2022 Maryland Million Turf, is entered to make his 9-year-old debut for trainer Mike Trombetta.
Sterling Road Stables and LBR Racing’s Riccio, three times stakes-placed on dirt was third by a neck in a one-mile turf allowance April 27, his season debut, before returning to the Laurel turf to win a 1 1/16-mile allowance June 1. Also entered are Marched, Sports Editor and Amusing Mischief.
Notes: Jockey Horacio Karamanos doubled Friday aboard Power Back ($11.60) in Race 5 and Alla Breve ($6.60) in Race 7 … Trainer Anthony Farrior saddled a pair of winners, Switzer ($5) in Race 1 and Money Room ($9.60) in Race 4 …Paul Fowler Jr.’s Shaft’s Bullet ($3.80), winner of Laurel’s Harrison Johnson Memorial in mid-March, collared pacesetting Ain’t Da Beer Cold at the top of the stretch and pulled clear for a popular three-length victory over late-running Vance Scholars in the Race 8 feature, an open allowance for 3-year-olds and up. The winning time was 1:44.58 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast main track … There will be carryovers of $1,399.86 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) and $1,051.38 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 4-9) wagers Saturday. First race post time is 12:25 p.m.