Time for Truth Attempts to Carry Speed in Rebel

The colt is a son of Omaha Beach, the 2019 Rebel Stakes (G2) winner.

February 22, 2024

By Byron King

Time for Truth wins a Dec. 31 maiden race at Oaklawn Park | Photo By Coady Photography

Trainer Ron Moquett is testing the unknown with Time for Truth in the $1.25 million Rebel Stakes (G2) Feb. 24 at Oaklawn Park. The speedy colt has yet to run the Rebel distance of 1 1/16 miles but has shown promise in two sprints at the Arkansas track, winning his debut going six furlongs Dec. 31 and then running second in the Ozark Stakes Feb. 10 over the same distance.

Whether he can handle a route is another question, one that will be answered late Saturday afternoon.

"The pedigree says he can," Moquett said Feb. 22.

His sire, Omaha Beach, won the 2019 Rebel before capturing the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby (G1) a month later for Fox Hill Farms and Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.

As for his dam, the Lookin At Lucky  mare Shape Shifter, she recorded three of her four wins in sprints but she did win a two-turn route at a mile and 70 yards at Horseshoe Indianapolis in the fall of 2018.

"If you have a good 3-year-old colt, you owe it to the colt and to everyone involved—the groom, the gallop boy, everybody—to see if he's a Derby horse," Moquett said of the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs.

The Rebel provides qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby on a 50-25-15-10-5 basis to its top five finishers.

Time for Truth races for owners Harry Rosenblum and Cheyenne Stable. The Dominique Damico-bred colt was a $47,000 purchase from the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-olds in Training in 2023 from the Cortez Racing and Sales consignment.

On the class hike and without route experience heading into Saturday's race, which is led by 2023 Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Timberlake, Time for Truth is a 15-1 longshot on the morning line under jockey Rafael Bejarano.

"I wish he wasn't in the 13 hole," Moquett said about drawing the far outside. "I like the way we're training. He's kind of a throwback horse, so we'll see."

Moquett pursues his first Rebel win after coming close in the race. Whitmore, who he owned in partnership and trained to 2020 champion male sprinter honors with co-owners Bob LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners, was second in the 2016 race to Cupid   and third in that spring's Arkansas Derby behind Creator and Suddenbreakingnews. Later, Whitmore finished 19th in the Kentucky Derby, won by Nyquist, before his connections began to concentrate him in sprints with effectiveness.

Moquett noted he has been second twice in the Arkansas Derby, with Far Right  in 2015 and with longshot King Russell last year.

He quipped that he is regularly reminded of the defeat in the 2015 Arkansas Derby, owing to Oaklawn erecting a bronze statue of its winner, Triple Crown hero American Pharoah, in front of the track's grandstand entrance.

Moquett said he and Oaklawn Park president Louis Cella, for whom Moquett trains, have traded friendly verbal jabs about that statue.

"(Cella) said, 'We almost put your horse in it. The problem is that if we would have we would have put him in the middle of (neighboring) Central Avenue because he was so far back,'" Moquett recalled.

Far Right, winner of the 2015 Smarty Jones Stakes and Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn for LaPenta and Rosenblum, finished eight lengths behind American Pharoah in the Arkansas Derby.

It's almost Valentine's Day and what better way to celebrate then with #7 VALENTINE CANDY ($5) winning Oaklawn’s $150,000 Ozark Stakes! This is the third consecutive stakes victory for the son of @coolmoreamerica's Justify, who was ridden by @RSantana_Jr for Steve Asmussen.

— TVG (@TVG) February 10, 2024

Source: Time for Truth Attempts to Carry Speed in Rebel (bloodhorse.com)