Response Time captures first stakes victory in Timonium Distaff

Response Time took the race to favored Princess Kokachin, dispatched that rival entering the second turn, then held off Malibu Beauty’s late bid to post a 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s $75,000 Timonium Distaff for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Princess Kokachin appeared the main speed, but jockey Jeiron Barbosa hustled Response Time out of the gate and refused to allow Princess Kokachin an uncontested lead.

Princess Kokachin stepped the opening quarter in 23.53 seconds with Response Time breathing down her neck. Barbosa turned up the heat even more following a half-mile clocking of 46.93. Meanwhile, Malibu Beauty had a perfect trip tracking the battling pacesetters.

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Response Time put Princess Kokachin away and immediately braced for Malibu Beauty’s oncoming challenge. Malibu Beauty loomed entering the short stretch of Timonium’s bull ring oval, but Barbosa always had enough horse.

Response Time completed the distance in 1:16.79 seconds and returned $9 as the third choice in the betting. Deco Strong finished third, 2 1/2 lengths behind Malibu Beauty. Then came Quiet Imagination, Princess Kokachin, Semble Juste, and Red Pixie. Brzina, Self Isolation, Volnay, and Extra Crunchy scratched.

“I told [Barbosa] to be up close, and if he could make the lead to try and do so,” winning trainer Hamilton Smith said in an interview broadcast by the Maryland Jockey Club. “It worked out well.”

Smith credited the time off following Response Time’s last-place finish as the favorite in Laurel’s Conniver on March 18 as a contributing factor in getting the mare back in form. Although she didn’t win her first three starts after the layoff, she placed twice, including a runner-up try in her most recent race, Laurel’s Alma North on July 29.

“Once she gets into a groove, she’s tough,” Smith added.

A 5-year-old daughter of Mosler, bred in Maryland by Country Life Farm, Response Time sold for $11,000 as a weanling, for $75,000 as a yearling, and then was bought by Men’s Grille Racing for $100,000 at a Fasig-Tipton 2-year-old in training. Her third dam, Celtic Melody, captured the Grade 1 Humana Distaff.

Response Time has won 8 of 30 races for lifetime earnings of $465,658. The Timonium Distaff was her first stakes victory.

Smith mentioned the Maryland Million Distaff as a long-term goal for Response Time.

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