Jimmy Two Times romps in Louisiana Futurity

As odds-on favorite Swot Analysis loomed at the quarter pole of the Louisiana Futurity, front-running Jimmy Two Times said, “Not today, not today.”

Swot Analysis’s rally floundered in the swamp of a Fair Grounds racing surface on a rainy Thursday as Jimmy Two Times turned back the favorite and everyone else, romping by 7 1/2 lengths in the $110,400 colts and geldings division of the Louisiana Futurity.

Jimmy Two Times was several times the price of 7-10 favorite Swot Analysis, paying $15 to win, Colby Hernandez riding for trainer Keith Bourgeois.

Swot Analysis on Nov. 27 scored a second-start maiden blowout facing Louisiana-breds for the first time, but that race had come under dry conditions and it was anything but that Thursday. The first wave of rain hit shortly after noon and bands swept over Fair Grounds throughout the program. That, apparently, is how Jimmy Two Times likes it. Named for a bit character (so called for his oddly repetitious speech patterns) in the movie “Goodfellas,” Jimmy Two Times looked moderate, even by Louisiana-bred standards, in his first three races.

All those came on tracks rated fast; in the slop Nov. 28 at Fair Grounds, Jimmy Two Times was a 4 1/2-length allowance-race winner at odds just shy of 13-1. He caught a muddy Copper Creek Training Center track in his lone published workout between that race and this one, skipping over Thursday’s soaked surface with a half-mile in a quick 45.84 seconds on the way to a six-furlong time of 1:12.35. Swot Analysis saved second, finishing 3 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Creole Charlie. Andrus Pellerin owns the winner, a son of Half Ours and the Van Nistelrooy mare Sammy Van Ammy bred by Larry Romero and Cradle Song Farm.

Big Time guts it out in fillies division

Big Time, the odds-on favorite in the $113,000 fillies division of the Futurity, came out a winner, but only after a slog, perhaps winning in spite of the testing conditions. Big Time also had license to regress Thursday swinging back into action just 19 days after a sharp win in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Lassie. That start was her first since June, a scenario that can leave a horse flat in a proximate second race, and Big Time was all out a long way out to post a half-length victory.

Last of seven early, Big Time and Brian Hernandez Jr. made their way between horses and wound up on the far outside in the final stages, gutting out a victory that required 1:13.51 to cover six furlongs over the sloppy going. Spirited Beauty, a 20-1 shot, was second by a nose over Winning Romance.

Big Time ($3.20) now is 3 for 3, having started her career in June with a maiden win in open company at Churchill Downs. Big Time is trained by Dallas Stewart for Valene Farms and was bred by Tom Curtis and Wayne Simpson. The filly is by Astrology out of Kitty’s Got Class, by Old Forrester, making her a half-brother to Classy John, who was bred, owned, and trained by the same connections. Classy John pulled a similar double to Big Time’s, winning the Champions Day Juvenile and the colts and geldings division of the Futurity in 2018.