Fair Grounds: Look At the Time pulls away in Gentilly Stakes

In three starts, the only thing Look At the Time has done wrong was make a slight right turn as he came to the top of the stretch in his career debut Dec. 23 at Fair Grounds. For that, the stewards disqualified Look At the Time, a 4 1/4-length winner, and placed him fourth. At odds of 17-1. For connections that might enjoy an occasional wager. Ouch.

But Look At the Time has since salved that initial pain. He came back to win a second maiden race, this time in a route rather than a sprint, by almost three lengths on Jan. 28, and on Saturday at Fair Grounds, he made short work of 12 foes in the $60,000 Gentilly Stakes, a turf-route race for Louisiana-bred 3-year-olds that he won by 3 1/4 lengths.

Look At the Time ($8.20) and jockey Corey Lanerie broke sharply and tracked on the outside for the first five furlongs of the Gentilly. Lanerie bided his time until the top of the stretch, and when all the front-runners declined the inside paths, he slid down near the fence as Look At the Time burst to the lead. Racing under hand urging, Look At the Time opened up and won sharply, stopping the timer in 1:39.95 for about one mile on good going. Late-runner Benwill narrowly got second over even later runner Beckyboy.

The winner, a son of Brahms out of Alishir, by Alysheba, was bred by Mike Paceiera and sold at auction for just $2,500. He is owned by Hooties Racing LLC and trained by Wes Hawley, who after the win mentioned the Crescent City Derby at Fair Grounds and the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland as possible upcoming targets for Look At the Time.