07.13.21
Breeze Easy’s lightly-raced three-year-old colt, Easy Time showed himself to among the potential leader of his division with a decisive win in the Marine Stakes (G3) at Woodbine on July 11.
A $250,000 OBS Open Horse of Racing purchase at two last year, Easy Time made an impressive debut at Woodbine last October to score by 2 3/4 lengths going seven furlongs on the all-weather. A leading fancy for the Grey Stakes (G3) on his next start, Easy Time lost his opportunity at a two-year-old graded win when that race was cancelled due to a snowstorm.
Wintering at Gulfstream Park, Easy Time flirted with the dirt in an early Kentucky Derby trial, the Mucho Macho Man Stakes, but found that surface not to his liking. Trying the turf in a one mile allowance event, Easy Time found that surface far more to his liking, and despite a rough trip, his strong finish took him to within a head of victory.
The Marine Stakes (G3) was Easy Time’s first start since that outing back in February, but he had impressed trainer Mark Casse and jockey Rafael Hernandez with a bullet five furlong work ten days before the event. In the race, Easy Time was sharply away to track pacesetters Tidal Forces and Haddassah through the opening furlongs. Moving closer on the turn, Easy Time showed a sharp turn of foot to take command, and from then on was not unduly pressed to hold the challenge of the late-charging Keep Grinding by two lengths. After the race an impressed Hernandez described Easy Time as “push-button.”
This success earned Easy Time an 89 Beyer Speedfigure a number that if repeated on the turf, places Easy Time in the upper echelons of the division, and he could next be seen on the lawn in the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame Stakes (G2) at Saratoga on August 6.
Easy Time is the eighth stakes winner and third graded winner from the first crop of the Giant’s Causeway horse, Not This Time. His dam, the Cape Town mare, Running Creek, has also produced the Selima and Tippett Stakes winner, Softly Lit. Running Creek is a half-sister to the multiple stakes winner For Kisses, and the Iowa Oaks (G3) scorer He Loves Me, granddam of last year’s Commonwealth Turf Stakes (G3) captor, Mr. Dumas. Her dam is the Gallorette Handicap (G3) heroine Palliser Bay.