Unrivaled Time © Benoit Photo
Unrivaled Time split through horses late down the stretch to run down favored Hey Nay Nay to take the Grade III $100,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes for two-year-olds, going a mile on the turf.
Sent off for the early lead, Proton with Juan Hernandez up carved out the early fractions with Track Tiger pressing to their outside in second, Unrivaled Time (5-1) travelled in third about a half-length off the lead the first three quarters of the mile. Track Tiger briefly took the lead from Proton leaving the three eighths pole coming to the far turn but faded down the stretch. The heavy 1-2 favorite Hey Nay Nay ridden by Flavien Prat was in fifth throughout made a three wide run as Unrivaled Time split horses passing the sixteenth pole, made brief contact with Unrivaled Time the last few furlongs from home and pulled away to win by three quarters of a length. A Late surging Irisearch (10-1) who was last throughout made a four wide bid at the turn for home stormed down the stretch to nail Hey Nay Nay for the place by a neck. It was another three quarters back to second choice Proton.
“The horse on the outside (Hey Nay Nay) was coming in, you know, he bumped me a little bit coming into the stretch and I was just trying to keep my horse as straight as possible,” said Herrera. “The sky is the limit for him, He just wants to get out there a run. You know, today he showed a lot of maturing. We had a couple of horses moving from inside to outside.”
With the win, Diego Herrera earned his first graded stake victory at the seaside track. Trained by Leonard Powell, Unrivaled Time broke his maiden against Cal-breds on October 19 at Santa Anita with run from off the pace.
“I was very happy with our position early on and very happy with how the race unfolded. He let a couple of speed horses go for it and settled then came with one run like he did when he broke his maiden. He broke his maiden against Cal-breds and the question mark was he good enough to step up and the answer is ‘yes’,” said Powell.
Owned by Innergy Racing Corp and in part by his breeder Alfred Pais, the colt by Not This Time has improved his record to 3-2-0-0 with $97,600 in earnings. Unrivaled time returned $13.00, $6.20 and $3.00. Trained by Phil D’Amato, Irisearch paid $7.40, and $3.80. trained by John Sadler, Hey Nay Nay paid $2.10.
Fractions on the race were 22.97, 47.52, 1:12.16, 1:24.43, for a final time of 1:36.42.
DIEGO HERRERA (Unrivaled Time, Winner) - “He just kept showing signs of improvement over the Summer. I just wanted to make sure he was in a good comfortable rhythm. The horse on the outside was coming in, you know, he bumped me a little bit coming into the stretch and I was just trying to keep my horse as straight as possible. The sky is the limit for him, He just wants to get out there a run. You know, today he showed a lot of maturing. We had a couple of horses moving from inside to outside.”
LEONARD POWELL (Unrivaled Time, Winner) – “I was very happy with our position early on and very happy with how the race unfolded. He let a couple of speed horses go for it and settled then came with one run like he did when he broke his maiden. He broke his maiden against Cal-breds and the question mark was he good enough to step up and the answer is ‘yes’.”