Time For Trouble has done only good things

Time for Trouble was claimed for $8000 in the summer of 2021 and the son of English Channel has done only good things ever since for owner/trainer Jeff Hiles and Thorndale Stable LLC.

The 5-year-old gelding, who has won five of eight starts with only one off=-the-board finish while competing at distances from 1 1/16 miles and 1 ½ miles, is scheduled to seek his first open stakes victory in Saturday’s $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens, a two-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up on turf at Gulfstream Park.

What attracted Hiles to Time for Trouble?

“His breeding. We knew he was meant to go long and he hadn’t really run that long,” Hiles said. “We watched a couple races and he was maybe in the wrong spot, so for $8000 we thought we’d take a chance and see if we could do something with him.”

Claimed out of a fourth-place finish at 1 1/16-miles on dirt at Churchill Downs, Time for Trouble won at first asking for his new connections in a 1 3/8-mile starter allowance on turf at Belterra. Following a second-place finish at Kentucky Downs and an off-the board finish at Keeneland, he was sent to the sideline.

Since his return in July, Time for Trouble has won four of five starts this year, winning on a fast dirt track in an off-the-turf race at Belterra and back-to-back turf victories at Kentucky Downs and Belterra before running on dirt in his two most recent starts. The Kentucky-bred gelding finished second in a starter allowance at Keeneland while prepping for a start in the Claiming Crown Iron Horse, which he won going away by 3 ¼ lengths over a sloppy Churchill Downs main track.

“He’s very versatile. He’s won in the slop; he’s won on fast dirt; he’s won at Kentucky Downs, which is a different track; and he’s won on just a flat turf,” Hiles said.

Time for Trouble has breezed three times on the main track at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, in preparation for his scheduled return to turf in the Jerkens.