Reigning Maryland-bred Horse of the Year expected to start as heavy favorite in Sunday’s Polynesian Stakes
LAUREL, MD — Reigning Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Post Time puts his unblemished record at Laurel Park on the line in Sunday’s $100,000 Polynesian Stakes for 3-year-olds and upward at one mile.
A perfect 9-for-9 at Laurel, Post Time recently placed sixth in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes on Aug. 2. It was the first time in his career that he finished out of the money. Overall, Post Time boasts a record of 11 wins from 19 starts with career earnings of $1,371,000 for Mrs. Ellen Charles’s Hillwood Stable and trainer Brittany Russell.
Two starts back, Post Time captured Laurel’s Deputed Testamony Stakes, a nine-furlong event on June 28.
“It’s never going to be easy for him,” trainer Brittany Russell said after the Deputed Testamony, referencing Post Time’s late-running style. “Sometimes, these five-horse fields are the harder ones to win. He just gets the job done. I just am relieved.”
Bred by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman, and Milton Higgins III, Post Time is a 5-year-old gray horse by Frosted out of stakes-winner Vielsalm, by Fairbanks. A stakes-winner at two and three, Post Time took his show on the road last year, winning the Grade 2 Carter Stakes at Aqueduct and cracking the top three in such prestigious Grade 1 events as the Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney Stakes at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar.
While Post Time has enjoyed great success outside of Maryland, Russell relishes the opportunity to showcase Post Time to the local racing fans.
“It’s just nice to bring him home, and it’s just nice for Ellen,” Brittany Russell said while celebrating the Deputed Testamony victory. “She loves to win with him here. It’s cool that he’s done what he has here. He’s done a lot outside of Maryland as well, but if we bring him back, we know that it’s hopefully an easier spot for him to win a race. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Post Time, the likely heavy favorite, faces four opponents in the Polynesian. One of them, Light the Way, wheels back on short notice for trainer Linda Rice after finishing second in a high-level allowance at Saratoga on Aug. 29. Light the Way has won off short layoffs in the past as he wired a second-level allowance field at Saratoga on July 12, one week after finishing off the board in a turf experiment that didn’t go as planned.
A 5-year-old gelding by Triple Crown winner Justify, Light the Way is a half-brother to multiple Grade 1-winning sprinter By the Moon and Grade 3-placed dirt sprinter Wonderful Light.
That classy pedigree was one of the reasons why Rice claimed Light the Way for $40,000 out of a winning effort at Aqueduct on Feb. 28. Since moving to the Rice barn, Light the Way won three of seven starts, with two wins at the one-mile distance.
“I liked his pedigree,” Rice said. “He was a beautiful horse. He’d shown some ability, but really hadn’t put it all together. I’ve been very pleased with his progress. I think there’s a good chance we’ll bring him [to Laurel].”
The consistent Inveigled seeks his first career stakes victory after five previous stakes placings, including three over the Laurel Park main track. Trained by Jane Cibelli, the 4-year-old Indiana-bred most recently finished second in Colonial’s Reigh Count Stakes on July 26.
Multiple stakes-placed Awesome Ruta, second in a second-level allowance at Colonial on July 9, and Grade 2-placed Northern Flame, third in Monmouth’s Rumson Stakes at five furlongs on Aug. 31, complete the Polynesian field.
Although Polynesian won the Preakness Stakes in 1945 and was named American Champion Sprinter two years later, he is perhaps best known for siring Hall of Famer Native Dancer, who took 21 of 22 starts, won two-thirds of the 1953 Triple Crown, and entered the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1963.
A nine-time stakes winner, Polynesian retired to stud with a record of 27 wins from 58 starts.
