Not This Time’s graded stakes winner Clock Tower went gate-to-wire in Saturday’s $150,000 Paradise Creek S. at Aqueduct to give the 3-year-old his second lifetime stakes win.
After weighing several options, Clock Tower’s trainer Wesley Ward ultimately selected the six-furlong turf sprint for the dark bay, the first sprint race since his debut a year ago. Clock Tower went right to the lead and dueled with Jet Sweep Joe through the first half-mile in :45.66. After turning for home, Clock Tower began to pull away and was never seriously threatened late, winning by 1 ½-lengths in 1:09.49 over the “good” turf.
“We were kind of looking to stay off soft turf,” said Ward. “We kind of rolled the dice today that it wouldn’t be too soft, and I guess it wasn’t. We had him cross-entered down in Maryland [James W. Murphy on Preakness Day] and we opted for this one because we thought that the grass was soft there. I also had him entered in Pennsylvania [GIII Penn Mile] next Friday, because maybe it would be too soft today, but we rolled the dice, he was doing well and it proved alright for us.”
Clock Tower, winner of the Cecil B. DeMille S. (G3) at Del Mar in December, is now 3-1-2 in eight starts and has earned $327,938 for Mrs. Fitriani Hay. He was bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm and is out of Bed o’ Roses S. (G3) winner Hot Stones.
Now with six crops of racing age, Not This Time has a total of 47 lifetime stakes winners. Among his graded stakes winners this year are the 3-year-old colts Magnitude and Final Gambit, the latter who was most recently fourth in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and is possible for the June 6th Belmont (G1).
