The Belmont Stakes Festival at Saratoga Race Course brought us an exceptional banquet of top-class racing. This heady fair was headlined by no less than nine grade 1 events, including the classic Belmont Stakes (G1); the Acorn Stakes (G1), a leg of the New York Filly Triple Crown; and the storied stallion-making Metropolitan Handicap (G1). By time and speed figures, however, the standout performance of the meet came in the Jaipur Stakes (G1T) over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. There, Cogburn rocketed through fractions of :21.33, :43.0, and :54.00, before stopping the clock in :59.80, a new track record, a new North American record, and very possibly the fastest time for the distance anywhere.
Cogburn's victory took his turf record to five wins in six starts. His other successes include the Turf Sprint (G2T)—his only previous outing this year—the Chamberlain Bridge Stakes, Grand Prairie Turf Stakes, and Troy Stakes (G3T). His sole defeat on the lawn came when he was fifth, but beaten just 3/4 length in the Turf Sprint Stakes (G2T) at Kentucky Downs. Cogburn also had very useful form on dirt prior to the switch to the sward with wins in a maiden special weight at Churchill Downs, a pair of allowance events at Oaklawn Park, and seconds in the Bachelor Stakes (beaten a neck) and Chick Lang Stakes (G3), beaten 3/4 lengths.
Cogburn is from the second crop of the fast-rising sire, Not This Time. A son of Giant's Causeway, Not This Time only raced at 2, but appeared to be a major classic candidate until a soft tissue injury caused his retirement, just two weeks after he'd run a very close second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1). He came into that race as the favorite following a runaway 8 3/4-length score in the Iroquois Stakes (G3), and from a wide draw missed by just a neck to Classic Empire in a race that decided the destination of the Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old colt.
Retired to stand at Taylor Made Stallions, in Nicholasville, Ky., in 2017, Not This Time began his career at a fee of $15,000, which dropped to $12,500 for 2020, but rose to $150,000 for the most recent season. The reason for that is clear when we note that Cogburn is just one of 33 stakes winners, 19 graded from Not This Time's first four crops. Beyond the numbers, it's also evident that Not This Time is proving to be a remarkably versatile stallion. His other grade 1 winners are Up To The Mark, champion turf horse of 2023, successful up to 10 furlongs and a close second in the 12-furlong Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T); Epicenter, the champion 3-year-old male of 2022, and winner of the Travers Stakes (G1) at 10 furlongs on dirt; Just One Time, who captured the Madison Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs on dirt; and Princess Noor, successful in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) over seven furlongs on dirt at 2. His four grade 2 winners included horses as diverse as Arzak, a multiple graded stakes winner who chased Cogburn across the line in the Jaipur, and Next, who has won black-type events at as far as 14 furlongs.
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Cogburn's dam, In A Jiff, took the Holiday Inaugural Stakes at Turfway Park. She's a daughter of the Saint Ballado horse, Saintly Look, who earned his most notable victory in the Lecomte Stakes (G3), and stood his entire career in Indiana. The second dam, Damie's Peanut, is a half sister to the Transylvania Stakes (G3T) captor Chin High, and by Stravinsky out of the Betsy Ross Stakes (G3) victress Damie's Sis.
There are plenty of stakes winners under the next three dams, but nothing truly approaching top-class. The family eventually goes back to Asteria, a granddaughter of the famed Frizette who was imported from France in the early 1930s. Although her achievements were modest, Asteria is half sister to Orlanda, the dam of one Prix du Jockey-Club-French Derby victor, Cillas, and granddam of another, Auriban. Coincidentally, Frizzle, a half brother to Asteria's dam, Frizelle, is found as the sire of a mare in the female line of Not This Time. Not This Time's own granddam is inbred to this family being 2x3 to Not This Time's fifth dam, champion sprinter, Ta Wee (herself half sister to Dr. fa*ger). This is the I2a1 mitochondrial haplotype, and Not This Time's dam is heavily inbred to another family which owns the same mtDNA line.
Cogburn has some other interesting patterns in his own pedigree. Both his grandsire, Giant's Causeway, and Stravinsky, sire of his second dam, are products of the Northern Dancer/Blushing Groom cross, and where Giant's Causeway carries champion Glorious Song (dam of his broodmare sire Rahy), Cogburn's dam is by a son of Glorious Song's brother, Saint Ballado. We can note that Saint Ballado also appears in the dams of other Not This Time graded stakes winners Simplification and Midnight Stroll, and overall, there are 26 stakes winners, 11 graded, that combine Glorious Song through Giant's Causeway with Saint Ballado, or another brother, Devil's Bag.
