Not This Time

Not This Time (foaled April 26, 2014) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire of Epicenter the 2022 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse.

Background
Not This Time is a dark bay or brown horse who was bred in Kentucky by Albaugh Family Stables. His sire Giant's Causeway was known in Europe as "The Iron Horse" after earning five consecutive Group One victories in a time span of just eleven weeks. Giant's Causeway then became a three-time leading sire in North America, whose notable offspring include Footstepsinthesand, Shamardal and Take Charge Brandi. The offspring of Giant's Causeway have been successful on both turf and dirt.

Not This Time is out of the Trippi mare Miss Macy Sue, who won the Grade III Winning Colors Stakes in 2007 and was placed in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint that year. Miss Macy Sue is also the dam of promising young sire Liam's Map, a multiple grade I-winning millionaire who captured his biggest victory in the 2015 Grade I Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and stakes winner and placed in the GII Forward Gal Stakes filly Taylor S. Miss Macy Sue in 2017 produced a winner Matera from Tapit, and she has a Bodemeister colt in 2015. They reside at Taylor Made Farm, where Not This Time was raised and now takes up residence at stud.

Career
Not This Time broke his maiden impressively by 10 lengths at Ellis Park Race Course on August 12, 2016, running a mile in 1:35.99 with a final eighth of a mile in 11.82 seconds while being geared down at the wire by jockey Robby Albarado. In his next start Not This Time rallied four wide in the far turn then drew off in the stretch to post an $8 3/4$-length victory in the $150,000 G3 Iroquois Stakes on September 17, 2020, at Churchill Downs. In winning the Iroquois Stakes a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win & You're In" race, Not This Time gained automatic entry to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

Not This Time was a runner-up finisher as the 5/2 favorite in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile by a neck to Classic Empire and $7 1/2$ lengths ahead of Practical Joke. Not This Time sustained a career-ending soft tissue injury to his right front leg and was retired. Dennis Albaugh of Albaugh Family Stable said: "Not This Time ran such a huge 2-year old campaign, and being considered a top contender for next year's Kentucky Derby, it really saddens me that his racing career is ending too soon." Jockey Albarado commented on his retirement, "What I felt was extreme talent there. That was some kind of feeling. He's one of the best I've ever sat on." Trainer Romans also was disappointed. "It's a real shame to see him leave the barn before we got to see him fulfill his enormous potential, because there's no doubt in my mind he was as good of a Kentucky Derby contender as there is out there."

Statistics
Notes: An (*) asterisk after the odds means Not This Time was the post-time favorite.

Stud career
Upon retirement from his racing career Taylor Made Stallions acquired a 50% stake in Not This Time from the owner and breeder, Albaugh Family Stable, and the colt stood in 2017 at their farm near Nicholasville, Kentucky, for US$15,000.

As a stallion, his runners shared his precociousness. Not This Time was the third-leading freshman sire of 2020 by progeny earnings. His runners only got better with maturity and he became the leader of his sire class during their second-crop, third-crop, and now fourth-crop years. He is the leading fourth-crop sire by number of career black-type stakes winners (27) and graded stakes winners (12). More significantly, he is the youngest sire among the top 10 on the North American general leading sires list with more than $7.36 million in progeny earnings. The sire stood in 2023 for $135,000. At the Saratoga Fasig-Tipton Sale on August 8, 2023, a share to Taylor Made Stallions' top 10 North American sire Not This Time was sold for US$2 million to a syndicate. The share was purchased by a syndicate of five people who include Jon Green, the manager of the family-owned D.J. Stable. Green did the bidding on behalf of the syndicate, according to Taylor.

Highlighting his top performers are 2022 champion three-year-old colt and Travers Stakes winner Epicenter, and Grade I winners and millionaires Sibelius and Up to the Mark. With the prominence of Not This Time offspring his stud fee for 2024 was increased to $150,000.

Notable progeny
c = colt, f = filly, g = gelding

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