Blackout Time returns in Sunday’s Rebel
Lots of Kentucky Derby prep and other intriguing stakes action this weekend, and Kentucky-based horses are at the forefront. That includes the Kenny McPeek-trained Blackout Time, winner of an Ellis Park maiden race by almost 10 lengths before taking second in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity won by unbeaten 2-year-old champ Ted Noffey. He returns to the races in Sunday’s $1 million Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, with jockey Brian Hernandez back aboard after missing the Breeders’ Futurity with an injury.
Check out host Louie Rabaut’s interview with jockey Brian Hernandez on Friday’s Kentucky Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680, the last installment of the show’s winter run as college basketball takes over in March and Inside Churchill Downs returns for the spring in the 6-7 p.m. weekly time slot. Hernandez interview starts 19:20.
Oaklawn Park racing notes by publicist Robert Yates (Coady Media photo above of Blackout Time winning at Ellis Park)
Blackout Time is by white-hot sire Not This Time, but there’s a little more to the story on how co-owner Lance Gasaway named the promising 3-year-old and 8-5 program favorite for the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) Sunday at Oaklawn.
Gasaway was a standout football player in the 1980s at Star City (Ark.) High School and nearby University of Arkansas at Monticello, where he became one of the most prolific wide receivers in school history and a 2015 inductee into its sports Hall of Fame.
Long before Blackout Time – the horse – there was blackout time, the football ritual, Gasaway said.
“So, when I played football, a bunch of times before we came onto the field, they would turn the lights off and that’s blackout time,” Gasaway said during training hours Saturday morning at Oaklawn. I thought what would go with the ‘Time’ part of Not This Time, so that’s what we came up with. Pretty neat, isn’t it? That’s how he was named.”
It certainly fit the bill.
Blackout Time has flashed some of the same brilliance Gasaway did as a football player. But the colt has been in a racing blackout for almost five months after he was a regulatory veterinarian scratch from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at 1 1/16 miles Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
Gasaway and his family, including fiancé Bobbi Jo Harris and 3 ½-year-old grandson Ford, were already in Southern California when the news broke. In addition to Blackout Time in the Juvenile, Mystik Dan was to start the following day in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Gasaway, in partnership, bred and raced Mystik Dan, the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner.
Instead, Harris said: “We got the double whammy.”
Gasaway said he was informed by trainer Kenny McPeek the morning of the Juvenile that Blackout Time would be scratched and was “90 percent sure” Mystik Dan would also be a regulatory vet scratch. Both horses were scratched over soundness concerns.
“You get a n** kick for two days in a row and it kind of hurts,” Gasaway said. “My grandson kept saying: ‘Papa G, how come Mystik Dan is not going to run?’ ”
Gasaway said he and Harris turned the empty business trip into a vacation, but added the last few months have still been “a trying time, to say the least.”
Blackout Time has only made three starts, but he owns a front-running 9 ¾-length maiden victory going a mile Aug. 2 at Ellis Park and completed his abbreviated 2-year-old campaign with a solid runner-up finish behind eventual unbeaten champion Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Futurity Stakes (G1) at 1 1/16 miles Oct. 4 at Keeneland.
Despite a small (racing) sample size and just five published workouts since late October, Blackout Time was made the program favorite for the 1 1/16-mile Rebel, which drew a field of 10. It’s Oaklawn’s third Kentucky Derby qualifying race.
“We’re not even in the picture right now,” Gasaway said of the Kentucky Derby. “We’ve got a horse coming off a five-month layoff. That’s a big ask. We’ll see how good he is.”
The Rebel headlines a 12-race card that begins at noon CST. Probable post time for the Rebel, race 11, is 5:23 p.m.
Rebel entrants from the rail out: Bravaro, Francisco Arrieta to ride, 121 pounds, 8-1 on the morning line; Litmus Test, Flavien Prat, 121, 7-2; Class President, John Velazquez, 119, 10-1; Blackout Time, Brian Hernandez Jr., 119, 8-5; Honey’s to Blame, Emmanuel Esquivel, 124, 20-1; Strategic Risk, Javier Castellano, 124, 12-1; Silent Tactic, Cristian Torres, 124, 9-2; Rancho Santa Fe, Irad Ortiz Jr., 121, 12-1; Time for Music, Keith Asmussen, 119, 30-1; and Soldier N Diplomat, Jose Oritz, 121, 10-1.
Litmus Test is trying to give Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his record-extending ninth Rebel victory. Strategic Risk (Smarty Jones Stakes) and Silent Tactic (G3 Southwest Stakes) won Oaklawn’s first two Kentucky Derby qualifying races for dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse. Soldier N Diplomat finished second in the Southwest for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.
The Rebel will offer 105 total points (50-25-15-10-5, respectively) to the top five finishers toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Blackout Time received five points for his runner-up finish, beaten 2 ¾ lengths, in the Breeders’ Futurity.
“I think his strength is being able to carry his speed and still have a punch,” Gasaway said. “He can carry that speed and keep going.”
If all goes well Sunday, Gasaway said Blackout Time will be pointed to the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) at 1 1/8 miles March 28 at Oaklawn. Sunny’s Halo, in 1983, won the Rebel in his 3-year-old debut before capturing the Arkansas Derby and Kentucky Derby in his next two starts.
“We’re kind of following the same thing as Mystik Dan did,” Gasaway said. “Mystik Dan won the Southwest, skipped the Rebel and ran in the Arkansas Derby. We had to get third place to get into the Kentucky Derby. Basically, we’re on the same pattern.”
Gasaway campaigns Blackout Time with BR Thoroughbreds, Inc. (Nader Alaali) and McPeek’s Magdalena Racing.
The Azeri
Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn Sunday for the $400,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 7.
The Azeri, which is for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles, closed Feb. 21 with 27 nominations, including projected starters in champion Nitrogen and millionaire multiple Grade 1 winner La Cara for dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, multiple stakes winner Standoutsensation for trainer Tom Amoss and multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Quietside for trainer John Ortiz.
Nitrogen and La Cara both worked over a fast track Wednesday morning at Oaklawn in preparation for the Azeri.
Nitrogen went a half-mile in :49.60, while La Cara covered five furlongs in 1:01.40.
“They worked well,” Casse said. “We only went a half, which was always the plan, with Nitrogen. She just ran. She didn’t need as much. La Cara, it’s been a little while, so we put a little stronger work in her.”
Nitrogen was North America’s champion 3-year-old filly of 2025. She won the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 7 at Oaklawn in her 4-year-old debut. La Cara, in her 4-year-old debut, finished fifth as the favorite in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 24 at Sam Houston Race Park.
The Azeri is the final major local prep for the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at 1 1/16 miles April 11.
