Albaugh Colts Show Potential at Ellis Park

Last summer at Ellis Park, Brody's Cause launched his way to running in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) and this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).

Jason Loutsch, racing manager for Dennis Albaugh's Albaugh Family Stable, connections for Brody's Cause, hopes the starting point at the Henderson, Ky. track does the same for their 2-year-olds Not This Time and Reedini, both dominant winners Aug 12 in their second career starts.

Loutsch said Not This Time, a 10-length winner in a mile maiden race, likely will be pointed for Churchill Downs' Sept. 17 Iroquois Stakes (gr. III), a 1 1/16-mile race in which winner gets a fees-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Reedini, a Bernardini half brother to champion sprinter Midnight Lute   who won his 6 1/2-furlong maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths, likely will go elsewhere. Possible races include Saratoga's $350,000 Hopeful Stakes (gr. I) on Labor Day at seven furlongs. Both horses are trained by Dale Romans.

"Not This Time is a homebred, a half brother to Liam's Map, and we've been excited about him, knowing for a while that he has a lot of potential," Loutsch said of the son of Giant's Causeway. "We were a little disappointed in his first start (at Churchill Downs) because he broke so bad and didn't have a chance. But the winner (Bitumen) came back and won a grade III at Saratoga. He was training great out of the race, so we expected a big effort and got it.

"We're really excited to go into the fall and hopefully he continues to get better and gives us a lot of excitement going into next year. The other colt, we're going to look at some options. The Hopeful is an option, maybe something seven furlongs around here if we can find it."

Last summer Brody's Cause lost his racing debut by 25 lengths on the Ellis turf, then won his next two starts in a maiden race at Churchill and the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (gr. I) at Keeneland before finishing a late-running third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. This year he won the Toyota Blue Grass (gr. I) at Keeneland. Loutsch said getting to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita "absolutely" is the goal and that they'd also like to run again in the Breeders' Futurity.

"The horses will tell us; we're not going to press them," Loutsch said. "Our ultimate goal is next year."

Loutsch confirmed with a laugh that the source of Not This Time's name is the determination not to sell a son of Albaugh's classy distaff sprinter Miss Macy Sue, as they did for $800,000 for the colt who turned out to be Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map, a $1.35 million-earner whose six wins in eight starts included Saratoga's prestigious Woodward (gr. I)

"We've sold one horse in our lifetime, and that happened to be Liam's Map," Loutsch said. "So we said, 'Not this time.' But couldn't be happier for what Liam did and what he did for our mare. We're really excited about him as a stallion."