ITSJUSTAMATTEROFTIME WAS ALL ABOUT FASTEST TIME OF 13 TRAINING RACES WITH 79 SPEED INDEX

OKLAHOMA CITY – February 24, 2021 – The speeds were nominally faster in the 13 training races Wednesday than they were in Tuesday’s 13 but that will happen when you go from a 15 mph headwind to a 20 mph tailwind the next day.

On Wednesday, it was Itsjustamatteroftime that was all about time, the fastest time of the day at 250 yards in the schooling races, 13.510 seconds, earning a 79 speed index.

Trainer Mike Robbins sent out 2-year-old Quarter Horse gelding Itsjustamatteroftime for owner Reliance Ranches of Guthrie, Okla., and the son of Big Lew, out of the Feature Mr Jess mare Spoiled Jess, was best to the wire in the 10^thrace. In fact, the second-place horse, Tempting Stoli’s 77 speed index was faster than any other winner on Wednesday. That filly out of Trey Wood’s barn hit the wire in 13.579 seconds, a neck back of the winner.

Big Lew won 8-of-24 starts lifetime for earnings of $638,878, including a victory in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Super Derby on the West Coast. This year is the first crop for Big Lew, the sire of the fastest training race winner Wednesday. On the bottom side of Itsjustamatteroftime’s pedigree, his maternal grandsire, Feature Mr Jess is a seven-time American Quarter Horse Association Racing Champion Sire with earners that have banked about $25 million. Some of his progeny were champions on the track as well, such as Heartswideopen, who won the 2007 Grade 1 $2 million All American Futurity. So, Robbins appears to have a swift gelding that has a blue-blooded pedigree for sure.

Multiple graded stakes winning jockey Esgar Ramirez was in the irons for Robbins on this winner. Ramirez has won the sport’s biggest race twice, the Grade 1 $2 million All American Futurity, in 2016 with Imperial Eagle and 2010 with Mr Piloto.

The weather conditions during Itsjustamatteroftime’s training race were 62 degrees with a 17 mph tailwind.

The other winners (Quarter Horses unless otherwise noted) in Wednesday’s training races with their times and speed indexes in chronological order of the race they won were: Farrah Levi (13.738 seconds, 70 speed index); AJS Tres of Paint (13.681, 73); Over the Shock (Paint, 13.860, 65); Ventura Haiwei (13.850, 66); Remember Me Seis (13.910, 63); Revenant Moon (13.650, 74); BP Fancydownsouth (13.600, 76); Smith Works (Paint, 14.020, 59); Tempting Uno Mas (13.666, 73); Jess Reloaded (13.772, 69); Waitin On Eight (13.741, 70), and Foolse Lodge (13.670, 73).

Four trainers had multiple wins in the training races Wednesday – Trey Wood, three; Clint Crawford, three; Troy Carter and Matt Whitekiller, two each.

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