From Aiken to Del Mar and the Breeders’ Cup!

10/31/2024 |

POST TIME was selected and started by Cary Frommer

Courtesy of the Paulick Report
It is easy to tell what Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) contender Post Time thinks of himself. With a pep in his step and a glide in his stride, there is no denying the dual graded stakes-winning 4-year-old son of Frosted knows his worth.

“He has so much character,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “There’s something special about him, and you can see it. When you’re around him, he has an air about him, and we love it.”

When Hillwood Stable’s Post Time first steps foot on the track, he walks with his ears forward and his head held stoically, sizing up the horses around him and announcing his presence. As he makes his way from the backstretch chute to the main oval, exercise rider Emma Wolfe prepares for the show.

“I think he really enjoys being out there with the action and the people,” Russell said. “People are looking at him right now, and this is his game and his thing. Him and Emma have a really special thing going. She loves him and he knows that.”

The first few minutes are a rocky start for Wolfe, as she holds on resolutely atop a bucking and frolicking Post Time. Feeling good, it takes him almost a full lap of trotting before he is ready to get down to business.

“He bucks and rears and stuff like that, but he doesn’t do it maliciously,” Wolfe said. “He just wants to go train. It’s all he wants to do.

When Post Time’s mind settles on his work, so do the eyes of every track goer. The strapping gray coasts along with powerful strides and perfect rhythm.

“He’s quite strong, and he’s all business,” Wolfe said. “If you let him do his thing in the beginning, then he has a better gallop. But if you don’t let him do that, then he’s just mad the whole time.”

Post Time’s attitude and personality aren’t the only things that make him special. When he steps into the starting gate Saturday, he will be Russell’s first starter at a Breeders’ Cup, a feat she has accomplished in partnership with her husband, Sheldon, Post Time’s regular rider.

Together, Post Time and Sheldon have won six races, topped by the Carter (G2) in April at Aqueduct. Last out, they dominated the Polynesian on Sept. 14 at Laurel Park by 11 ½ lengths.

“Sheldon and I were talking about it and I said, ‘Isn’t it crazy that Post Time is taking both of us to the Breeders’ Cup?’ You sit down and really reflect on it, and it’s special,” Russell said. “A lot of people work really hard in this game for a long time and don’t get these opportunities. We’ve been really blessed. We’re so proud he’s taken us his far.”

Del Mar will be the sixth track Post Time has raced over, boasting wins at three of them and two Grade 1 placings over another this year when second in the Metropolitan Handicap and third in the Whitney at Saratoga.

“He shows up. It doesn’t matter where we run him. He shows up and runs his race,” Russell said. “It’s a matter of he has to bring his best race, and is it going to be good enough to win on Saturday?”

Regardless of the result, Post Time is certainly good enough to have earned an eternal place in the hearts of his trainer and team.

“That air, that confidence he carries, he thinks he’s the best,” Russell said. “He’s such a special individual and he’s nothing like I’ve ever been around. It’s so hard to describe. He’s just so special.”

‘He Thinks He’s The Man’: Post Time Confirmed For Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

10/04/2024 |

Started and trained at the Aiken Training Track by Cary Frommer

Hillwood Stable’s Maryland-bred and based multiple graded-stakes winner Post Time, dominant in capturing the one-mile Polynesian last month at Laurel Park, will make his next start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

Trainer Brittany Russell confirmed that the 4-year-old Post Time, by two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) participant and multi-millionaire Grade 1 winner Frosted, is bound for and will train up to the Dirt Mile Nov. 2 at Del Mar, having emerged from his 11 ½-length romp in the Sept. 14 Polynesian in good order.

“We’re heading toward the Dirt Mile. We’re going to take him out there. The Polynesian was the prep,” she said before saddling a fifth straight winner at Laurel with 2-year-old filly first-time starter Gotanothathingcomn ($4.40) in Thursday’s Race 4. She added a second winner, 3-year-old gelding Derbyness ($5.80), also ridden by Jevian Toledo, in Race 8. “We’re all really excited.”

The Polynesian was the sixth stakes win for Post Time, five of them coming at Laurel including his first graded triumph in the Feb. 17 General George (G3), which was the last time he had raced over his home track. He then won the Carter (G2) and was second in the Westchester (G3) at Aqueduct and finished second in the Met Mile (G1) and third in the Whitney (G1) – his two-turn debut – at Saratoga.

“We got him a win. It was great to get him back in the winner’s circle at home,” Russell said. “I think he got enough out of it, which is always a concern when you’re thinking about the next step. There’s still something left in there. From a mental standpoint, I think we did what we wanted to accomplish. He thinks he’s the man. He came out of the race very, very good and that was sort of the goal.”

Post Time returned to the work tab for the first time since the Polynesian Wednesday over a fast main track at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., where Russell’s string is overseen by assistant trainer and exercise rider Emma Wolfe, going four furlongs in 49.60 seconds.

“He’s great. He’s been training pretty aggressively since he ran,” Russell said. “That was a pretty easy race for him so he was back to work quick. I was going to breeze him last week, but we got a lot of rain and I was waiting for a good track. He did it easy, well within himself. It was kind of a great first work back off of the run.”

Post Time has the second-most points on the Dirt Mile points leaderboard with 22, five fewer than Preakness (G1) and Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner Seize the Grey. National Treasure, Three Technique and Japan-based Crown Pride have all won automatic qualifying races.

Millionaires National Treasure and Skippylongstocking are also among horses pointing to the Dirt Mile. After running second to National Treasure in the Met Mile, Post Time finished ahead of both Skippylongstocking (fifth) and National Treasure (sixth) in the Whitney.

“We’ve been careful in how we’ve raced him. We haven’t overraced him or anything and he seems to be maintaining that level,” Russell said. “I feel like in a sense he needs to take a little bit more of a step up, and I’m hopeful that he can do it on the right day.”

Russell said her husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, will retain the call in the Dirt Mile. He has ridden 10 consecutive races on Post Time, who owns nine wins, two seconds, two thirds and $997,910 in purse earnings from 13 career starts.

“My first runner out there, we’re doing it together,” Brittany Russell said. “Even if he wasn’t going to be on him, it’s the team. The fact that he’s ridden him and he’s had so much success on him, it’s great.”