Excellent Timing debuts for Chad

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After confirming the potential he showed in the morning with tangible results in the afternoon, the New York-bred Excellent Timing caught the attention of some high-profile connections.

Following a 7 1/4-length maiden victory in his second start last Dec. 10 for Charlton Baker, Excellent Timing was sold privately to an ownership group that includes Michael Dubb, Marc and Joe Lore’s Wonder Stable, and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables, and was transferred to trainer Chad Brown.

Sunday, Excellent Timing will make his first start for those connections in the $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds going seven furlongs at Aqueduct.

Nine were entered in the Damon Runyon, but the race will lose one of its key contenders as Eagle Orb, second in the Jerome, came out of a Friday morning gallop at Belmont Park with a crack in a sesamoid in his right ankle and will be sidelined indefinitely.

Noting that Excellent Timing, a son of Not This Time, is on the smaller side, Brown opted to bring him down to South Florida for the winter to give him time “to fill out and kind of grow up,” he said. “I’m liking what I’m seeing.”

Excellent Timing had a string of steady workouts at Payson Park, a training center in Florida, before shipping up north to get his final breeze in at Belmont before Sunday’s race.

Excellent Timing showed speed in both of his first two starts for then-trainer Charlton Baker. Brown noted that Excellent Timing is on the aggressive side.

“We’ve been working with him to settle him down, he pulls pretty good,” Brown said. “He’s a good-moving horse. If we can get him to settle down and rate, which we’ve been trying to do, I think that will be key to see how far he’ll run.”

Manny Franco rides Excellent Timing from what will become post 4.

Perfect Munnings won his debut on turf and then took the Rego Park Stakes on dirt by two lengths here on Jan. 10. He ran into the buzz saw known as Nicky the Vest when finishing a well-beaten third in the Gander Stakes going a mile.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has opted to put blinkers on Perfect Munnings and shortens him up a furlong for the Damon Runyon.

A Longlongtimeago, a son of Maclean’s Music, was a debut winner for trainer Jorge Abreu here on Jan. 21. A Longlong-timeago, showed the ability to sit behind horses and then wore down One Whirlwind Ride to get the victory. Reggae Music Man, third in that race, came back to win his maiden next out and is also in Sunday’s Damon Runyon.

With Franco, who was aboard A Longlongtimeago on debut, electing to ride Excellent Timing, Eric Cancel has picked up the mount on A Longlong-timeago, who breaks from the rail.

Trainer Kelly Breen has the uncoupled entry of It’s Gravy and It’s a Gamble entered in the Damon Runyon. It’s Gravy is coming off a maiden victory going one mile in the mud on Jan. 16. It’s a Gamble, who has gone 2 for 6 on turf in his career, makes his dirt debut in this spot.

Echoes of Destiny and The King Cheek complete the field.