1st-Churchill Downs, $76,680, Msw, 5-21, 2yo, f, 4 1/2f, :51.26, ft.
HOPEFUL PRINCESS (f, 2, Not This Time–More Than Magic, by More Than Ready) ran to a worktab littered with bullet breezes and won a dogfight in the stretch to become the first winner for her freshman sire (by Giant's Causeway) in the Thursday opener at Churchill. Tipping her hand in the morning early and often, including a best-of-47 bullet half-mile from the gate in :48 flat Apr. 10 at Keeneland, the dark bay was knocked down to 29-10 from a 6-1 morning-line quote and came away well. Tracking the speed of Mad Maddy (American Pharoah) through a :22.33 quarter, she pounced on that rival at the top of the lane, and those two hooked up for the remainder. Mad Maddy dug in gamely, but Hopeful Princess started to do the better work in deep stretch, struck a short lead at the sixteenth pole and edged away to prevail by three-quarters of a length. The winner's dam, a half-sister to GSW and sire Street Magician (Street Cry {Ire}), is responsible for a yearling colt by Trappe Shot and was bred back to Not This Time last spring. Not This Time, standing at Taylor Made Stallions, is a half-brother to MGISW Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song) and was a dominant winner of the GIII Iroquois S. as a 2-year-old before coming up a neck short as the favorite in the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Sales History: $27,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $45,400. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
O-Jackie Huckaby, Imaginary Stables & Donna G. Hancock; B-Elm Tree Farm, LLC (KY); T-John A. Hancock.
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