As Time Goes By shows she's not standing still
ARCADIA, Calif. - Six months from now, As Time Goes By could be at the center of discussions regarding the older filly and mare division.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, As Time Goes By displayed the sort of performance in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles to suggest she belongs in that group. Winning her first stakes, As Time Goes By led throughout the $200,000 Santa Margarita, pulling clear through the stretch to win by 9 1/4 lengths as the 3-5 favorite.
“I know the more distance she gets, the better she gets,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “The Breeders’ Cup is the main goal.”
The Breeders’ Cup Distaff, at 1 1/8 miles, will be run at Del Mar on Nov. 6.
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Owned by the Coolmore syndicate, As Time Goes By has won 3 of 6 starts and has earned $260,600. The Santa Margarita was her third win in her last four starts.
As Time Goes By won a maiden special weight at six furlongs at Los Alamitos in December in her third start, and her 2021 debut in a one-mile allowance race by nine lengths on Jan. 17. In her stakes debut, As Time Goes By was second by 2 3/4 lengths to Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020, in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 13.
“I’ve been taking my time and the owners have been patient,” Baffert said. “I wanted to develop her slowly.”
As Times Goes By, 4, is by American Pharoah and is out of Take Charge Lady, a nine-time stakes winner who earned $2,480,377. Take Charge Lady is the dam of two millionaire stakes winners – Will Take Charge, who earned $3,924,648 and was eighth behind Orb in the 2013 Kentucky Derby, and Take Charge Indy, who earned $1,103,496.