Double Down Horse Racing\u2019s It\u2019s Our Time rides a dominant debut score into Saturday\u2019s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, a one-turn mile for juveniles, at Belmont at the Big A.<\/p>\n
The Champagne is a \u201cWin and You\u2019re In\u201d qualifying event for the Grade 1 Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile on October 31 at Del Mar and also offers 10-5-3-2-1 qualifying points to the top-five finishers towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
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Trained by Tom Amoss, the Not This Time dark bay was bumped at the start of his 6 1\/2-furlong debut on August 16 at Saratoga Race Course, recovering to stalk the favored Hero Declared, taking command by the five-sixteenths and building a 10-length lead by the stretch call.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Our Time, while geared down under returning rider Luis Saez, extended to a 17 3\/4-length victory over the Whit Beckman-trained Hero Declared in a final time of 1:15.63. The performance earned an impressive 94 Beyer Speed Figure and stood out among a bustling Grade 1 Alabama Day at the Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat performance was certainly eye-opening,\u201d Amoss said. \u201cNow, he has to do it against accomplished horses. I think there is a bit of a target on his back. He has to show he can do it again because that was such a talked about race. He has a lot to live up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amoss said he liked the idea of stretching It\u2019s Our Time out to the one-turn mile.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe ran an exceptionally quick time, and although he finished up with a lot of energy and galloped out very well, as a trainer, I\u2019m training to transition him to go more distance gradually and we have this option of going a one-turn mile,\u201d said Amoss. \u201cThat is a luxury, versus a two-turn race, which is why we are doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Our Time [post 6, Luis Saez] completed his preparations with a five-furlong breeze in 1:01.40 in company with Spa debut-winner Big Dom on September 27 at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went with each other, and it was a workout that we had designed for them to stay together,\u201d Amoss said. \u201cNeither of them were asked for a lot in the last part of the work. It was more of a stamina style work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bred in Virginia by South Gate Farm, It\u2019s Our Time, a $425,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, is out of the multiple stakes-winning Summer Front mare Shea D Summer. His third dam, Circle of Gold, is a full-sister to multiple Grade 1-winner Flanders \u2013 the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of 1994.<\/p>\n
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Gold Square\u2019s Napoleon Solo [post 8, Joel Rosario] graduated impressively in his six-furlong debut on August 8 at the Spa. Trained by Chad Summers, the Liam\u2019s Map gray was hustled to a forward stalking position, taking command at the half-mile call and drawing clear to a 5 1\/4-length victory in a final time of 1:11.14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been our plan,\u201d Summers said. \u201cHe broke his maiden, then we held our tongue and skipped the Hopeful [September 1], which would\u2019ve been coming back in 24 days. Obviously, everyone is going to know where Tom Amoss\u2019 horse is. I think it is a little bit of a different situation for Tom Amoss than when he was under the radar against Whit\u2019s horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napoleon Solo\u2019s performance earned an 83 Beyer and Napoleon Solo has worked back four times since, posting three consecutive bullets including a half-mile in 47.40 seconds on September 26 over the Belmont Park dirt training track.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had three really good workouts going into this race,\u201d Summers said. \u201cThe gallop outs have been the best part of the works. When you are stretching out from six furlongs to one mile with a second time starter, that is not an easy thing to do. We are hopeful he will be able to see out the mile distance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Napoleon Solo, a $40,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is out of the stakes-winning Scat Daddy mare Atomic Blonde.<\/p>\n
West Point Thoroughbreds\u2019 Curtain Call [post 1, Ricardo Santana, Jr.] was an 8 1\/2-length third to Ted Noffey last out in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Spendthrift Farm Hopeful on September 1 at Saratoga. Trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, the Tiz the Law dark bay was stepping up in class from a 8 1\/2-length second-out graduation after slightly stumbling at the break sprinting six furlongs over sloppy and sealed footing on July 12 there.<\/p>\n
Curtain Call earned an 82 Beyer in the Hopeful, matching his career-best from his maiden win which avenged a 7 1\/2-length debut second in June at Churchill Downs to next-out Grade 3-winner Obliteration. A $325,000 purchase at the OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, Curtain Call is out of the Into Mischief mare Deep Trouble.<\/p>\n
Casse also entered Ironhorse Racing Stable’s Just Asap [post 5, Florent Geroux] off a prominent neck second to One More Freud in the one-mile Sapling on August 30 at Monmouth Park. The Maxfield bay improved to a career-best 80 Beyer from a 60 for a dominant pacesetting graduation in a seven-furlong maiden optional claimer on August 4 at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n
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Just Asap, a $50,000 purchase at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, is out of the Grade 3-placed Paynter mare Movie Moment. His second dam, dual Grade 1-winner Starrer, produced Star Act, the dam of 2023 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Just F Y I.<\/p>\n
Robert Cotran\u2019s Aye Eye [post 4, Samuel Marin] generated significant buzz with an eye-catching last-to-first rally from 19 lengths back in his six-furlong debut on August 8 at Saratoga. Trained by Joe Orseno, the Essential Quality gray did not replicate the performance in the Grade 1 Champagne last out, passing tired foes for a distant fifth.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the field is Talkin [post 9, Kendrick Carmouche] for trainer Danny Gargan and the maiden Stradale [post 2, Manny Franco] for Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the respective one-two finishers from a seven-furlong maiden on August 30 at Saratoga; as well as a pair of maiden winners for trainer Ken McPeek with Universe [post 3, Chris Elliott] and Stickupwithoutagun [post 7, Luis Rivera, Jr.].<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 28, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Double Down Horse Racing\u2019s It\u2019s Our Time rides a dominant debut score into Saturday\u2019s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[15854,75557,62250,9464,16199,30598,75554,75556,3004,8091,101,75555,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-167142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-beyer-speed-figure","tag-chad-summers","tag-champagne","tag-churchill-downs","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-luis-saez","tag-napoleon-solo","tag-qualifying-event","tag-racing","tag-saratoga-race-course","tag-sports","tag-tom-amoss","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}