Hopeful Princess

John C. Oxley homebred Beautiful Memories (Hard Spun) headlines a field of eight juvenile fillies set for Thursday's co-featured GIII Schuylerville S. at the Spa. Trained by Mark Casse, the chestnut aired by 10 lengths for 'TDN Rising Star' honors on debut at Churchill Downs May 28. She's registered a pair of bullet workouts in Louisville since, including a five-furlong spin in :59 1/5 (1/34) July 4. Beautiful Memories' third dam is champion older mare Beautiful Pleasure, who carried Oxley's gold-and-blue silks to six top-level victories, led by a win...

Not his time yet, surely. Can't be. A son of two-turn titan Giant's Causeway; a half-brother to late-blooming Liam's Map. Yet there it is, in black and white: three starters, two winners. Hopeful Princess hurtling just 4 1/2 furlongs at Churchill last week; and Swaggy George at Gulfstream the next day, circling the field into the stretch and sprinting four lengths clear. So while these remain the very earliest of days, Not This Time could not have made a more auspicious start to his stud career. On the one hand,...

Though he won one of two races for 2-year-olds held last week at Churchill Downs, trainer John Hancock had hoped to do better. A day after the filly Hopeful Princess (Not This Time) broke her maiden, stablemate Cuz (Ironicus) finished seventh in a maiden race for juvenile colts. Hancock said he believes the reason Cuz didn't fare better was because he was, under new rules in place at Churchill, not allowed to run on Lasix. "[Cuz] is an exceptionably nice colt," Hancock said. "We scoped him and he showed signs...