Queen's Plate pedigree analysis: Time to Travel

Time to Travel

Hard Spun-Like a Gem, by Tactical Cat

(Bred in Ontario by Garland E. Williamson)

Queen’s Plate contender Time to Travel’s family tree has been good to owner and breeder Garland Williamson.

The Hard Spun colt’s second dam is the Rubiano mare It’s a Ruby, whom Williamson purchased for $35,000 at the 1998 Keeneland September yearling sale. The mare’s racing career was unremarkable, but she made up for it in her produce record.

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Chief among her offspring was Like a Gem, who is by Tactical Cat and won three stakes races as a homebred for Williamson, including the third leg of the Canadian triple tiara, the 1 1/4-mile Wonder Where Stakes. Like a Gem is also the grandam of Camp Creek, who gave Williamson his first Canadian classic win as an owner last year in the Breeders’ Stakes.

Like a Gem has already carried the female family’s success into the next generation with three-time Grade 1 winner Hard Not to Like, who is Time to Travel’s full sister.

Hard Not to Like was a turf specialist, earning Grade 1 wins in the Diana and Gamely stakes at 1 1/8 miles and the Jenny Wiley Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

Hard Spun earned his Grade 1 win in the seven-furlong King’s Bishop Stakes and proved his two-turn chops with Grade 2 wins in the Lane’s End and Kentucky Cup Classic stakes at 1 1/8 miles and runner-up efforts in the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic at 1 1/4 miles.

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Hard Spun, by Danzig, is the sire of Questing, the 2012 Eclipse Award winner as champion 3-year-old female and the winner of the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at 1 1/4 miles.

Among Hard Spun’s sons, Hard Aces won the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita at 1 1/4 miles and boasts a pair of graded wins at 1 1/2 miles, while Hardest Core won the Grade 1 Arlington Million over 1 1/4 miles on turf and also won a 1 1/2-mile stakes.