Pink Lloyd Stakes Sunday: Its Time to Shine Did Just That

The only thing that would have made the $100,000 Pink Lloyd even more perfect for trainer JOHN ROSS was if his two super sprinters dead-heated for the win.

It was close to occurring, but ITS TIME TO SHINE won by a head over his more-fancied stablemate, JUNIOR HOT SHOT, to win the Ontario-sired six furlong dash.

Its Time to Shine, who, like Junior Hot Shot, is by the late Souper Speedy, is a rapid bay colt who was a $40,000 yearling purchase by Ross, well known for his keen eye for a young prospect. After he began training at two, two years ago, his older half-brother Paramount Prince did big things, like win the King’s Plate. But Ross’ colt took a bit longer to come around. He didn’t race until last summer and at one point won for $40,000 claiming. This year, however, Its Time to Shine continued to blossom.

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A two-time winner to begin the year, the colt, who is owned by JC Stable (John Ross and Cathy Wong), Rijack Farm and Jim Aston, was sent to the lead soon after the start of the Pink Lloyd by jockey Jose Campos.

“We made a Plan A and a Plan B,” said Campos. “Its Time to Shine is a difficult horse to ride, so I said that I better go. For one moment, I thought, ‘I don’t know’ at the end, but the horse gave me everything he has from the gate to wire.”

Campos won three races on Sunday and four during the week.

“They are both beautiful horses,” said Ross, who watched Its Time to Shine turn the tables on Junior Hot Shot one race after the latter notched a one-length win over the former on June 29. “Junior kind of showed a little bit more step near the end – I thought he (jockey Rafael Hernandez) rode a nice race on the horse, and the other side of the coin is that [Its] Time to Shine is slowly improving and coming to the forefront even more. He kind of showed it today.

“They both ran great races,” continued the multiple graded stakes winning conditioner. “I was very, very happy. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Its Time to Shine’s dam Platinum Steel, bought by breeder Ericka Rusnak for $25,000 in 2017, was voted Outstanding Broodmare at the 2024 Sovereign Awards based on Paramount Prince and another stakes winner she produced, Souper Supreme.