Time Flies runs one last time

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Jeff Talley won last Friday's feature race at Oaklawn with Initforthekandy, a candidate for the Grade 1 Apple Blossom. He will attempt to win his second feature race of the meet Thursday with Initforthekandy's half-sister Time Flies.

Time Flies will be cutting back to six furlongs in race 8, a $40,000 optional claimer with second-level allowance conditions. A field of 10 fillies and mares have been entered, led by Catera, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Cuvee who is returning to the overnight ranks after finishing third in the $50,000 Bold Ego at Sunland Park.

Time Flies set the pace and finished sixth in a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Oaklawn on Jan. 16. The race has produced a next-out winner in Day of Victory, who won a $40,000 optional claimer at Oaklawn last week, with a Beyer Speed Figure of 75.

Time Flies's most recent win came in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance at Turfway Park on Jan. 1.

"The whole family has gone long, and I tried her going long, and I just don't think that's her," Talley said of the race Jan. 16. "I think she's a sprinter."

Initforthekandy, a 7-year-old earner of nearly $300,000, won a $75,000 optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles here last Friday with a Beyer Figure of 85. Talley said she is headed next to the Grade 3, $175,000 Azeri at Oaklawn on March 8.

Time Flies, 5, will be calling it a career after she runs on Thursday.

"She's going to be retired," Talley said, noting plans are to breed the mare to Langfuhr, the sire of Lawyer Ron.

Talley is hoping for a good setup for Time Flies on Thursday. She will break from post 4 under Calvin Borel.

"I would think that she would be stalking," Talley said. "It looks like there's a lot of pace."

Talley is new to Oaklawn. He brought a 17-horse division to town this year in part because he liked what he saw when he came to run Saintly Look in the 2005 Essex Handicap.

The horse to beat Thursday is Catera, who won a first-level allowance by 5 3/4 lengths at Fair Grounds on Nov. 28, the last time she ran in the overnight ranks.

Luis Quinonez has the mount for trainer Steve Asmussen.