Courtesy of the TDN
The GII Carter at Aqueduct has seen better days. Once one of the most important sprint races on the calendar, it was downgraded to a Grade II for this year and the race attracted all of four horses. But the winner was notable.

Even with the small field, this was the biggest test to date for the Brittany Russell-trained Post Time (Frosted). He came into the race with seven wins from eight career starts but some were arguing that he was just beating up on inferior competition in Maryland. His lone defeat had come in the Perryville S. at Keeneland, the only time he had run outside of Maryland.

As expected, Super Chow (Lord Nelson) got off to an uncontested lead and was allowed to set easy fractions. He went in 24.38 and 48.18 and Post Time was last. He then got carried out to the middle of the track by Super Chow, who has a bad habit of bearing out in the stretch. Despite all that, he was able to get the win, beating Castle Chaos (Palace Music) by a neck.

With Elite Power (Curlin) and Gunite (Gun Runner) both having been retired, Post Time could be on his way to an Eclipse Award.

Courtesy of the BloodHorse
Purchased and started by Cary Frommer at the Aiken Training Track

1–POST TIME, 120, c, 4, by Frosted
1st Dam: Vielsalm (SW & GSP, $329,285), by Fairbanks
2nd Dam: Merriweather, by Opening Verse
3rd Dam: Satin Lilly, by Affirmed   ($85,000 Ylg ’21 EASOCT).
O-Hillwood Stable LLC;
B-Dr. & Mrs.    Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman & Milton P Higgins III    (MD);
T-Brittany T. Russell;
Lifetime Record: 9-8-0-1, $582,910.

Post Time wins the Carter Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack

• By Eric Mitchell

The $279,000 Carter Handicap (G2) was a doppelganger of sorts for trainer Brittany Russell.

A year ago, she won the historic spring stakes with, yes, Doppelganger  , who scored a 17-1 upset. On April 6, another Russell trainee returned to the Aqueduct Racetrack winner’s circle after the Carter, though there were a couple of noticeable differences.

Her 2024 victor, the nearly perfect Post Time , was hardly a longshot. Now a winner of eight of nine career starts, the 4-year-old Maryland-bred Frosted   colt was the 4-5 favorite in an abbreviated field of four. Post Time also received credit for only a grade 2 win as the 126th edition of a race that produced the famed 1944 triple-dead-heat for first was downgraded from its 2023 grade 1 status.

“How rude that they downgraded it after Doppelganger won it. How rude!” Russell said through a laugh after her husband, Sheldon Russell, guided Post Time to a neck victory over Castle Chaos . “But it still feels good to win it.

“I can’t believe we did it two years in a row.”

While Doppelganger did not win a graded stakes after his victory in the Carter, the future appears much brighter for the runner owned by Ellen Charles of Hillwood Stable. The gray or roan colt’s only loss came in October in the Perryville Stakes at Keeneland, when he was third by 1 1/4 lengths, and the Carter gave him back-to-back graded stakes wins following a score in the Feb. 17 General George Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park.

While Russell would not commit to what’s next for Post Time, the prospect of a start in the prestigious one-mile Metropolitan Handicap (G1) June 8 at Saratoga Race Course surely is something to consider.

“I think he’d love the mile. It’s something to think about,” she said. “(Charles) loves to race in Maryland and race at home but we need to think of other things now.”

For Charles, who is in her 80s, Post Time has produced some of the greatest thrills in the sport for a woman who has been associated with racing for most of her life.

“I was born in New York but grew up in Maryland. It was so exciting. These beautiful animals can make you so proud. I’m very fortunate to (work with) people like Brittany and Sheldon.”

Courtesy of the TDN
Pedigree Notes:    Tapit’s Frosted is the sire of Post Time and 25 other black-type winners worldwide. Post Time, a third-generation Maryland-bred for the Bowman family, sold to Cary Frommer at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale for $85,000. His SW & GSP dam Vielsalm has a 2-year-old McKinzie filly named Field Song, who hammered for $80,000 to Mouse at the 2023 edition of that sale. She was bred to Nyquist for 2024. The mare is one of two daughters of Fairbanks, a son of Giant’s Causeway, to produce a stakes winner.

Courtesy of Maryland Thoroughbreds

Nine Maryland-breds went through the ring, with eight selling for an average of $109,625 and a median of $57,500. Those figures represent an increase from last year, when six Maryland-breds sold for an average of $67,333 and a median of $56,000.

A dark bay or brown colt from the first crop of Honor A. P. led the way among both Maryland-breds and Mid-Atlantic breds, fetching $300,000. Consigned by Cary Frommer LLC, Agent I, and bred by Dark Hollow Farm, he sold to Amerman Racing LLC. He breezed an eighth of a mile in 10.1 at the under-tack show the week prior.

A headliner when named Grand Champion of the MHBA Yearling Show last year, the son of the Not For Love mare Flit went through the ring at last fall’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale and listed as sold to Hillwood Stables for $87,000. He’s a half-brother to $222,427-earner Betcha by Golly; his dam is a half-sister to stakes winners O Dionysus (Bodemeister) and Joy (Pure Prize) and stakes-placed Combat Diver. The colt’s third dam, Safe At the Plate (by Double Zeus), is a half-sister to Maryland-bred legend and Racing Hall of Famer Safely Kept and graded stakes winner and sire Partner’s Hero.

Courtesy of the Paulick Report

In an all-out slugfest down the Fair Grounds homestretch on Saturday, Camaro Z outfought Count Dracula to win the 66th running of $100,000 Black Gold.

Owned by Terry Stephens, Pravin Patel, and Tagg Team Racing, Camaro Z delivered and overcame multiple blows while battling his outside rival to prevail by a neck.

Trained by Greg Foley, Camaro Z’s pilot was Corey Lanerie. A winner of three races on the day, Lanerie who made the traditional walk to Black Gold’s grave in the infield to lay the ceremonial wreath. Descendants of Black Gold’s owner Rosa Hoots were on hand to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of becoming the first Louisiana Derby champion to go on and win the Kentucky Derby.

CAMARO Z broke his maiden, was second in an allowance race and jumped right into stakes company in the Black Gold S at the Fair Grounds. He had to forge a path through tight quarters but he got the job done to win by a neck.  He was purchased for the Cary Frommer consignments by his trainer Gregory D. Foley. He is owned by  Terry Stephens, Pravin Patel, and Tagg Team Racing. Breeder: Al Shaqab Racing

Started and conditioned for racing at the Aiken Taring Track by Cary Frommer
Courtesy of the BloodHorse

Post Time  made the leap to graded company in stylish fashion, taking the $200,000 General George Stakes (G3) in a powerful late-rallying victory. The win gave trainer Brittany Russell and her husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, back-to-back stakes scores Feb. 17 at Laurel Park following their win in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes (G3).

A Maryland-bred son of Frosted  , Post Time had garnered some attention on the Midlantic circuit with his 6 1/2-length romp in the one-mile Jennings Stakes against state-breds Jan. 28 at Laurel Park. The 4-year-old was no secret to the railbirds around Laurel, as the colt headed into the General George a perfect 6-for-6 over the Maryland oval, with his lone career defeat being a third-place finish in Keeneland‘s Perryville Stakes last October.

Sheldon Russell kept Post Time calm and collected in fifth position early as fellow Maryland-bred Seven’s Eleven  rolled through fractions of :23.81 and :46.61. Circling five-wide around the final turn, Post Time ignited a relentless drive to the wire, tearing into Seven’s Eleven’s lead with every stride.

Barreling past the pacesetter at the sixteenth pole, Post Time surged to the finish three lengths in front in 1:23.33 for seven furlongs on a fast main track. The final time was nearly two seconds faster than it took older fillies and mares to run in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes earlier on the card.

Seven’s Eleven, second to Post Time in the Jennings, played the bridesmaid once again with a runner-up finish over 24-1 shot Tenebris  in third.

Running for the colors of Hillwood Stable, who were winning their third General George following Bandbox  (2014) and Cordmaker  (2022) Post Time ($2.60) upped his bankroll to $417,910 with his fourth black-type win.

“I’d say we were a little worried shortening back up to the seven-eighths. There wasn’t a whole lot of lightning-fast speed in the race, so my goal was to keep him close enough. I felt like he traveled good. If anything, I felt like we had to rush him a little bit but once I got him clear at the eighth pole he spurted clear and showed his true class,” said Sheldon Russell

Hillwood Stable’s Maryland-bred star Post Time  looks to remain undefeated in his home state in the seven-furlong $200,000 General George Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park Feb. 17.

Maryland’s top juvenile of 2022, the son of Frosted is now a three-time stakes winner. His lone loss in seven starts came in the Perryville Stakes at Keeneland Oct. 21, finishing third beaten 1 1/4 lengths by Raise Cain  and Dr. Venkman  in his only start outside of Maryland.

Post Time enters on three weeks rest from a 6 1/2-length win in the Jennings Stakes while posting a career-high 116 Equibase Speed Figure, improving his Laurel record to 5-for-5.

VIDEO: JENNINGS S. (BT)

“He’s doing so well right now,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “He came bouncing out of his last race. This is a horse that I’m always very excited to walk over.”

Also entering off three weeks rest is Qatar Racing, Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Steve Adkisson, and Campeche Stables’ Nimitz Class , who has a record of 4-2-0 from seven starts at Laurel.

Nimitz Class defeated grade 1 winner Gunite   three starts back in the Parx Dirt Mile Stakes at Parx Racing Sep. 23. The 5-year-old son of Munnings   was last seen finishing eighth for his new owners and new trainer George Weaver in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park Jan. 27.

The General George is race 9 with a post time of 4:33 p.m. ET.