Ultra-Consistent Post Time Faces 10 Foes in Cigar Mile

Winning has been a hallmark of Brittany Russell's training career.

Since she opened her Maryland-based stable in 2018, she has been winning at a highly impressive 25% clip.

But it's been Post Time  who has taken her career to the next level.

While it was Doppelganger   who provided Russell with her initial grade 1 score in the 2023 Carter Handicap (G1), Hillwood Stable's Post Time has brought her center stage at some of the year's biggest races.

The 4-year-old son of Frosted   who has never finished worse than third in his 14-race career, has placed in a trio of grade 1 stakes this year, and will try to add another major stakes to his résumé Dec. 7 when he faces 10 rivals in the $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

"He's had a huge impact on my career," Russell said. "(Owner Ellen Charles) has been so good to us, to let us take our time and space his races. He gets what he needs. There's no pressure at all. That he could take us to the Breeders' Cup for the first time was incredible. I haven't been doing this too long and to have a horse in the (Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile) who had a legitimate chance was pretty special."

In his last start, Post Time rallied from 13th to finish second by 1 1/2 lengths in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) under jockey Sheldon Russell, Brittany's husband. It added an exclamation point to a year in which he won the Carter Stakes (now a grade 2), finished second in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) and Westchester Stakes (G3), and was third in the Whitney Stakes (G1) while earning $915,000.

"Good horses are hard to find, especially one like him who shows up every time," Brittany said. "Whatever I ask him to do, he handles it. He loves his job. He's a different animal and we are lucky to have him. We always say, 'We are living in Post Time's world' and we are enjoying the ride with him."

Russell said plans call for Post Time to race in 2025 with the possibility of running in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) in January and then getting a few months of rest or getting time off after Saturday's race.

Bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman, and Milton Higgins III, the son of the Fairbanks mare Vielsalm was bought for $85,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale.

Another trainer with the horse of a lifetime in the Cigar is Todd Fincher. 

The New Mexico-based trainer has hit the jackpot with Joe Peacock Jr.'s Senor Buscador , who won the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1) earlier in the year and has earnings of $12.8 million.

A year ago, after finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), the son of Mineshaft   finished second in the Cigar Mile and used that as a springboard to tack on a second in the Pegasus World Cup and a win in the rich Saudi Cup.

This year, the 6-year-old homebred was fifth in the Breeders' Cup Classic, winding up 6 1/2 lengths behind Sierra Leone .

"He ran well in the Classic," Fincher said. "He ran a 103 Beyer (Speed Figure) and he was down on the rail and ate some dirt which he didn't like. The winner had the trip we wanted on the outside."

While the majority of his races are longer than a mile, Fincher said a one-turn mile like the Cigar Mile is a nice fit for the son of the Desert God mare Rose's Desert .

"As usual, he needs a set up because he goes to the back of the bus," Fincher said. "He can run short but some tracks are so speed-biased he can't catch up. A one-turn mile is fine. A one-turn mile and an eighth is better, but that's only in Saudi."

Fincher said the Cigar Mile and Pegasus World Cup will likely be Senor Buscador's final two races.

The Cigar attracted a solid field that includes the 3-year-old grade 1 winner Book'em Danno  (Bucchero  ); Mullikin  (Violence ), the beaten favorite in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1); Locked  (Gun Runner  ), another grade 1-winning 3-year-old who returned from nearly a year-long layoff to take an Oct. 19 allowance optional claimer; and Coastal Mission  (Great Notion  ), winner of the Forty Niner Stakes (G3) in his last start.