Everything remains on course for Hillwood Stable's Maryland-bred and -based multiple graded stakes winner Post Time following his final local workout Oct. 19 ahead of a scheduled start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
With assistant trainer and exercise rider Emma Wolfe aboard, Post Time went four furlongs in :49 3/5 over the main track at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., ranking eighth-fastest of 34 horses.
It was the third work for the 4-year-old Post Time since his dominant 11 1/2-length victory in the one-mile Polynesian Sept. 14 at Laurel Park, where trainer Brittany Russell is based.
"He went good. He went a half-mile in :49 and change and did it very well," Russell said. "It's been quiet and good, and that's what we're looking for. Day to day, everything is going the way we need it to."
Maryland's champion 2-year-old male of 2022, Post Time won his first career stakes that fall in the Maryland Juvenile Stakes and earned his first graded stakes triumph in the Feb. 17 General George Stakes (G3), both sprinting seven furlongs at Laurel, following up with a victory in the April 6 Carter Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Never worse than third in 13 starts, nine of them wins, Post Time ran second in the Westchester Stakes (G3) and Metropolitan Handicap (G1) and third in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes (G1) Aug. 3 at Saratoga Race Course, his two-turn debut. One-mile races are conducted around two turns at Del Mar.
"We're all just really focused right now. We're trying to keep everything going and take it day by day," Russell said. "There's a lot of things that need to be taken care of, because we're leaving for a couple days. Everybody's really focused, everybody's good. Obviously, we're all really excited. We're looking forward to it."
Accompanied by Wolfe, Post Time is scheduled to leave for California from Newark, N.J., Oct. 23. The rest of the team including Hillwood's Ellen Charles, Russell and her husband, jockey Sheldon Russell who will ride in the Dirt Mile, are scheduled to join them Oct. 30.
"Emma's going to travel with him and she will be out there with him," Russell said. "He's going to fly middle of the week, so he will get a skip over the racetrack. Emma will breeze him like a solo half and let him gallop out. The main work is done now. It'll just be some maintenance the week before, let him feel the track and all that."
After racing three times at both 2 and 3, Post Time has run seven times this year starting with a season-opening 6 1/2-length victory in the one-mile Jennings Stakes against Maryland-bred/sired horses Jan. 28 at Laurel. He sits less than $3,000 away from becoming a millionaire, with $997,910 in purse earnings.
Post Time would be the second millionaire for Charles, following retired grade 3 winner Cordmaker ($1,004,380), and the first for Russell. He has already surpassed her previous top-earning horse, retired filly Hello Beautiful, who was bred by Charles.
"As long as he's healthy, he's the kind of horse that thrives on racing," Russell said. "We're all lucky to be in Post Time's world, really."
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
