Giant’s Causeway sons are the weekend stars

New Graded winners for Not This Time and Carpe Diem

By Frances J. Karon

Stallions by Giant’s Causeway were front and center in both of Saturday’s Graded sophomore stakes in the U.S., with No More Time’s win in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay and Kinza’s in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita.

Giant’s Causeway, cornerstone of the Coolmore America stallion barn until his death in 2018.

No More Time is the 32nd stakes winner for Not This Time, and like his sire’s Grade 1 winner Just This Time, he’s out of a mare by Speightstown. He’s prominently placed in sixth on the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard. Connections told the Daily Racing Form that they will likely target one more Derby prep race with the colt.

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• NO MORE TIME (2021 Not This Time – Baroness Juliette, by Speightstown)

• B: MAMAS Thoroughbreds LLC

• O: Morplay Racing LLC

• T: Jose Francisco D’Angelo

• Record: 4-2-1-0, $156,780

• Last auction price: $40,000 yearling at Keeneland September

• Highest achievement: Grade 3 winner

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Albaugh Family Stable’s homebred Not This Time stood at Taylor Made for $15,000 initially and now stands for 10 times that figure because in four crops of racing age (excluding current two-year-olds), he has five Grade 1 winners, two champions – Epicenter and Up to the Mark – among them. He’s the real deal. His Sibelius, a six-year-old gelding who won last year’s G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, was victorious in the Pelican S. on the Sam Davis undercard for a Not This Time stakes double.

Not This Time at Taylor Made Farm.

Kinza is the first Graded stakes winner for Carpe Diem. She’s not eligible to run in the Kentucky Oaks due to CDI’s controversial ban on her trainer, but there will be plenty of other Graded stakes opportunities open to connections. Like No More Time, Kinza is bred on the Giant’s Causeway/Gone West cross, as her broodmare sire Quality Road is a grandson of that stallion.

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• KINZA (2021 Carpe Diem – Secret Wonder, by Quality Road)

• B: JD Business Ventures LLC, Brushy Hill Stable & Carpe Diem Syndicate

• O: Michael Lund Petersen

• T: Bob Baffert

• Record: 2-2-0-0, $99,000

• Last auction price: $350,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic two-year-old

• Highest achievement: Grade 3 winner

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Carpe Diem, a Grade 1 winner at two and three, started out at WinStar in Kentucky, where Kinza – a New York-bred – was conceived. He remained there for six seasons before making a switch to Louisiana, where he now stands at Aztec Equine for $3,500.

WinStar- and Stonestreet-raced Carpe Diem, trained by Todd Pletcher, in the winner’s circle with John Velazquez after the G1 Blue Grass at Keeneland.

With the breakout success of Not This Time, it’s been nice to see Giant’s Causeway have a resurgence in N. America. For many years, his European-based sons, with Darley’s Shamardal at the forefront, far overshadowed the U.S. line, despite Eskendereya getting champion sprinter Mitole (last year’s leading first-crop sire in N. America) and Grade 1 winner Mor Spirit; First Samurai getting Grade 1 winners Executiveprivilege, Justin Phillip, and Lea (First Samurai stands for $7,500…are you paying attention, home breeders?); Protonico siring the (disqualified) Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit; and Brody’s Cause, Creative Cause, Fed Biz, and Red Giant each getting a Northern Hemisphere Grade 1 winner of their own.

Meanwhile, Irish-based dual French Classic winner Shamardal, who died in 2020 aged 18, sired 27 Group 1 winners (including four Southern Hemisphere-breds), and he’s taking it one generation farther as the sire of Lope de Vega (sire 19 Group 1 winners, including four in the Southern Hemisphere) and Europe’s 2023 first-crop sensation Blue Point (sire of G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner Big Evs plus another Group 1 winner from his first two-year-olds). Oh, and not to be left out, Shamardal was represented on Saturday by G3 Jebel Ali Mile winner Swing Vote.

Shamardal in his box at Darley’s Kildangan Stud in January, 2020. Frances J. Karon photo.

Odds and ends: Of the above-named U.S.-based sons of Giant’s Causeway, only First Samurai (Claiborne) and Not This Time (Taylor Made) remain at the farms to which they retired to stud. Eskendereya is in Japan, Protonico in Chile, Brody’s Cause in Pennsylvania, Creative Cause in Texas, Fed Biz in Canada, and Red Giant in Turkey…Staying on this theme, Irish Surf (Chesapeake Farm in KY), a Grade 3-winning son of Giant’s Causeway and champion Surfside, was represented by his first black-type horse on Saturday when Irish Prophet was third in the G3 San Marcos at Santa Anita…Cherokee Crossing (Cherokee Colony), a Listed stakes-placed filly who never broke her maiden but produced Grade 1 winner Siphonic (Siphon) and the dam of Grade 1 winner Laragh (Tapit; dam of a pair of Grade 3 winners in Japan) and Grade 2 winner Summer Front (War Front), is the third dam of both Mystik Dan (Goldencents), who won the Grade 3 Southwest at Oaklawn on February 3rd and has 21 Kentucky Derby points (ranked third), and No More Time (20 points)…A bit of trivia about Larry Demeritte and Harry Veruchi – trainer and owner, respectively, of West Saratoga (Exaggerator), who is on the Derby trail with 17 points after his third-place run in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis on Saturday. Their Spicey Marcloud broke his maiden at Turfway in December of 2001, handing the future Grade 1 winner/Classic-placed/twice Breeder’s Cup-placed/top sire Medaglia d’Oro a defeat in his debut…Jess’s Dream, the celebrated first foal of Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and the winner of his only start, died at age 12 on Sunday, four months after it was announced he’d been retired from stud with thoughts toward a third career as a track pony for his owner/breeder Stonestreet. His daughter Dream Concert was third in the Minaret S. at Tampa Bay the day before he passed away.

Jess’s Dream galloping at Saratoga as a three-year-old, less than two weeks before making his winning debut. Kiaran McLaughlin trained him.