Cary Frommer prepped and sold SACRED WISH (Not This Time) at last spring’s  Fasig Tipton Timonium Sale. SACRED WISH broke her maiden at Oaklawn in her 2nd start last month. Stepping up into graded stakes company today, in the G2  Gulfstream Park Oaks, she finished a willing 2nd. She added a 2nd in the Coaching Club American Oaks (Gr. 1), a win in the Winter Memories Stakes a 2nd in the Pebbles Stakes (Gr. 3) and today an achingly close 2nd in the WinStar Matchmaker Stakes (Gr. 3).

The filly is owned by Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Steve Adkisson, Christopher T. Dunn and Anthony Spinazzola and was bred by John R. Penn (KY). She is trained by George Weaver.

He ran a closing second against a speed bias. He was selected by Cary Frommer and was started at the Aiken Training Track.

Son of Frosted captured this year’s Carter Stakes (G2).

• By Frank Angst

In delivering victory after victory while climbing the class ladder, Post Time  convinced trainer Brittany Russell the time is right for his grade 1 debut June 8 in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.

The 4-year-old Maryland-bred son of record-breaking 2016 Met Mile winner Frosted   swept his three starts as a juvenile by a combined 12 1/2 lengths capped by a victory in the 2022 Maryland Juvenile Stakes. He then won two of three races last year including two more stakes scores, one in open company in the seven-furlong City of Laurel Stakes.

With four starts already under his belt this year for owner Hillwood Stable (Ellen Charles), Post Time has proved up to the challenge of graded stakes as he won the seven-furlong General George Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park before rallying to a narrow victory in the Carter Stakes (G2) April 6 at Aqueduct Racetrack. He’ll enter Saturday’s test off a runner-up finish in the one-mile Westchester Stakes (G3) May 3 at Aqueduct.

While the winning has been there from the start as Post Time has earned trips to the winner’s circle in eight of his 10 efforts and has never finished off the board, Russell said she’s seen more maturity in the strong start to 2024.

“He’s a better-seasoned horse this year. I think he’s more of a man rather than a boy, which is kind of what it felt like last fall,” Russell said. “This is going to be a true class test for him.

“We’ve tried him in some bigger spots and obviously he hasn’t yet run with the likes of the National Treasures and White Abarrios but I feel like when they’re doing good, you’ve got the races under them, and they’ve trained forwardly, it’s the time to try.”

Russell has enjoyed success in Maryland and just captured the short Pimlico Race Course spring meet training title with eight victories. At Saratoga, Russell has won five of 35 starts and captured the 2021 Tale of the Cat Stakes with Wondrwherecraigis . She’s looking for her first Saratoga graded stakes victory.

Post Time is scheduled to start from post 3 and is the 7-2 morning-line third choice in the Met Mile behind Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner White Abarrio  and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner National Treasure .

Post Time, who arrived at Saratoga’s Barn 14 June 5, is capable of some quirkiness but once he’s to the track for racing or training, he focuses on the task.

“This morning (assistant trainer Emma Wolfe) gets a leg up on him and he goes out and he stands up and shows his belly a couple of times,” Russell said. “But then he steps down and he goes on about his business. He’s just a playful type of horse.

“He’s awesome. He’s a quirky horse and has a lot of personality. He’s been like that from the beginning. He has some antics, but he’s super professional. And he’s a very good training horse.”

Post Time was trained by Cary Frommer
Courtesy of the DRF

Maryland took center stage three weeks ago, with national attention on 15 stakes races, topped by the Preakness Stakes. But as the traveling circus of the Triple Crown moves to New York, Maryland comes along seeking a bit of the spotlight. The lightly raced and unbeaten Maryland-bred Mindframe runs in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga; two races prior, fellow statebred Post Time, a multiple graded stakes winner, starts in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.

There have only been two Maryland-bred winners of the Belmont Stakes in more than a century and a half – Cloverbrook in 1877 and Caveat in 1983. The Metropolitan Handicap has been a Grade 1 race since the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association took on that project in 1973; no Maryland-bred has won the historic race in that span.

Both Mindframe and Post Time are multi-generational products of prominent Maryland programs. Mindframe was bred by R. Larry Johnson before being purchased for $600,000 by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable out of the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale. The colt’s first three dams – Walk of Stars, Star Kell, and Special Kell – were all homebreds for Johnson. Mindframe’s fourth dam is Johnson’s foundation mare Ran’s Chick, purchased for $2,400 by the owner as a 2-year-old at a Timonium sale in 1978.

Post Time was bred by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman, and frequent partner Milton P. Higgins III. Post Time is out of Vielsalm, also bred by the Bowmans, and the next dam is Merriweather, bred by the Bowmans with Higgins.

“With how challenging the breeding industry is, to see familiar names who have done this a long time be on the national radar, it’s a celebration,” said Cindy Deubler, a research specialist for the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Maryland Million, among other titles.

“And these breeding programs show the success from different approaches,” Deubler added. “The Bowmans generally breed to sell and have teamed up with Larry Johnson with great success in the past. Larry races many of his homebreds, so they often remain as part of his breeding program.”

Post Time, who has won 8 of 10 career starts, is based at Maryland’s Fair Hill Training Center with Brittany Russell. He was an $85,000 purchase by Cary Frommer out of the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale in Maryland, on behalf of the Hillwood Stable of Ellen Charles. A Met Mile victory for the current stable star would be the icing on the cake of a big spring for that longtime horsewoman and philanthropist. During Preakness week, Charles was honored with the Special Award of Merit, given to those who have made a positive impact on the racing industry, at the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico.

Charles followed her mother, Adelaide Close Riggs, a supporter of Maryland’s breeding and racing industry for nearly 70 years, and father, Merrall MacNeille, whose roles in racing included 20 years as a steward in Maryland, into the sport. Charles has raced since 2004 as Hillwood, and Post Time joins graded stakes winners like Bandbox and Cordmaker and other standout statebreds like Hello Beautiful and Phlash Phelps in her stable’s history. Charles has sat on the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association’s board of directors, and currently serves on the MTHA’s finance and aftercare committees.

“Ellen Charles is an animal lover who adores her horses, and she’s dedicated to her stable of runners, broodmares, and retirees,” Deubler said. “She not only adds to the local industry, but is an example of doing things right by her horses.”

Hillwood Stable horses all start training in Aiken with Cry Frommer

Hillwood Stable’s Ellen Charles To Receive Special Award of Merit At Pimlico’s Alibi Breakfast May 16

POST TIME (Frosted) won the Carter G2 (downgraded this year from a G1) last out making it his 9th win from 10 starts – with half of them stakes races. He strutted his stuff in the big time with the Carter win. Racing back in the Westchester at a mile the come-from-behind specialist had just too much to make up and had to settle for the place.  POST TIME was started by Cary Frommer at the Aiken Training Track.

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.