Not This Time got his newest stakes winner in thrilling fashion on Christmas Eve at Gulfstream Park when F Five went to the front at the break to win the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens H. in a three-horse photo
Trained by Brian Lynch and owned by Ferro Family Trust, Larry Connor and Bruno Deberdt, F Five is 4-1-0 in seven starts and has earned $270,668. The 4-year-old is the 13th stakes winner of 2023 for Not This Time, which leads all Fourth-Crop sires and is in the top 10 on the General Sire list.
F Five, who had never raced beyond 1 3/8-miles, was keen out of the gate and had things his own way for the first mile and a half of the four-turn marathon. The field bunched up entering the final turn, with McLovin briefly taking the lead for a few strides. F Five immediately battled back to re-take the lead and was very tenacious the rest of the way, refusing to yield to win by a neck over McLovin, with Six Minus just a nose back in third.
“You would have to bend him in half to take him back in a race like that, and (jockey) Luis (Saez) was almost having to do that to walk the dog on the front end,” Lynch said. “But just an unbelievable ride. It’s always a lot of fun for me to run these kind of distances…it’s always fun to get one to go two miles.”
Lynch added that F Five could return Jan. 27 on Pegasus World Cup Day in the $200,000 W.L. McKnight (G3) at 1 ½ miles on the turf.
