Relax, he's in control: Catienus colt clears NW2L

Time Control sat just off the pace then pounced in the stretch to win by a widening two lengths Friday night at Penn National.

It was the second consecutive win for Time Control, who paid $8.20, $5.20 and $2.60 in the field of seven $10,000 claimers. The Catienus colt made a credible debut for a higher tag, but without hitting the board, then was dropped in for maiden-claiming $7,500 on Nov. 11 at Penn and won for fun by 14 lengths.

He is one of 187 horses I endorsed as prospects on this blog from several of this year's 2-year-olds in training sales.

Stepped up to $10K NW2L company off his maiden win, jockey Jose Flores and Time Control were only a head behind 3/1 Ishikawa through an opening quarter run in 22.69. They settled into third, a length off the pace, as Ishikawa covered a half in 46.69 with 4/1 Gibson Creek close behind. Time Control wrested the lead from those two in five furlongs run in 59.88, and finished the six-furlong test in 1:13.79, chased home by Hihopesmptypockets (9/2) and Gibson Creek. The 2.8/1 favorite, Volcanic Ocean, raced evenly and was fourth virtually throughout.

Time Control races in the colors of R J G Racing Management LLC, trained by Murray Rojas, who bought him for just $6,000 as Hip 209 at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in Training this May. He was bred in Pennsylvania by G & R Stables LLC and James M. Robison, MohnsHill Farm LLC and Edward A. Price.

I shortlisted Time Control for a client who hired me to identify bargain prospects at F-T Midlantic. My 48-horse list (from more than 400 catalogued and around 350 to pass through the ring) was divided into four flights, and Time Control rated a "Priority 2."

The chestnut colt would have been a Priority 1 horse on our list had his tail-female line not been fairly devoid of real talent the past couple of generations. He is the first foal out of Keep Your Day Job (Abaginone-Sultry Princess, by Sultry Song), who is arguably the best runner in recent memory from her female family. She won twice from 15 starts and was stakes-placed among NY-breds at Aqueduct for $104,316. Sultry Princess was unraced, though third dam Prospective Prince (Woodman) was three times a winner and stakes-placed in France.

And that's almost all the runners worth mentioning in the past three generations. Sultry Princess produced four foals to race and only one other was victorious, winning all of $10,080 lifetime. Prospective Prince bore five to race and three were winners, with one of them, Margarite Gautier, racking up 13 victories and $152,021; she was pretty good. The remaining blacktype is all the way down under fourth dam Princess Spook (Majestic Prince), who bore Fort Erie juvenile stakes winner TAKE IT and German stakes-placed Kulshee Mashee.

But if you checked the catalog page linked to Time Control's Hip Number above, take note it's rare to see a sheet with so much white space on it. Especially for a horse I really liked.

Time Control only breezed 23.3 for a quarter, which would be a bit slothful at other sales. But for EASMAY, over a slow track, it wasn't bad.

I liked that his sire, Catienus, just flat-out upgrades his mares, getting 82 percent runners and 61 percent winners -- not to mention a whopping 20.2 average starts per runner, well above the modern average for career trips to post. He also offers versatility, siring winners on dirt, turf and synthetic, while this family has managed to get winners on both dirt and turf (in Germany, France and Italy), despite the sparse amount of overall success.

If any stallion was going to get more out of this female family than it had shown of late, Cateinus was a good bet to be the one.

Besides, as I told blog readers upon recounting my first experience as a hired bloodstock advisor, the colt had "good bone, a cool head under inspection, and a fairly racy look."

"Watch this one do at least a little something," I predicted, "probably plenty to merit the $6,000 paid."

With two wins in three starts, even though among cheaper claiming company, and $23,760 in earnings, he's done OK so far.

The win bumps the 187-member Sales-Tip Class of 2010 to 58 wins from 368 starts (15.8 percent). With 69 places and 39 shows, the group hits the board 45.1 percent of the time. Their collective earnings have reached $3,060,434, which averages to $8,316 per start.

Follow the entire group at this former post.