Stakes Advance - Temperence Hill Stakes 2025
Compiled by Robert Yates
An evenly matched field of 11 is entered in the 12-furlong $200,000 Temperence Hill Stakes for older horses at Friday at Oaklawn.
The Temperence Hill headlines an 11-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. (Central). Probable post time for the Temperence Hill, the 10th race, is 5:19 p.m. The program also features the inaugural $145,000 Lapatourel Overnight Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
The Temperence Hill lineup includes defending champion Masqueparade for trainer Ron Atras, 5-2 program favorite Sir Greylind for trainer Kenny McPeek and the accomplished Time for Trouble for co-owner/trainer Jeff Hiles.
The south Florida-based Time for Trouble returns to Oaklawn after finishing fifth in its inaugural $145,000 General MacArthur Overnight Stakes for older horses Jan. 25. The General MacArthur was for horses that hadn’t won a stakes race.
Time for Trouble was making his first start since being pulled up early in the $150,000 Birdstone Stakes for older horses at 1 ¾ miles Aug. 4 at Saratoga. Hiles said the Time for Trouble was diagnosed with bone bruising, necessitating a lengthy layoff. Time for Trouble, an 8-year-old gelded son of grass champion English Channel, will be running 1 ½ miles for the first time since May 2023.
“I think it’s his distance,” Hiles said. “It looks like the weather forecast is for rain, which is going to help him even more. The thing is with those horses is they have to be able to get that mile and a half and most can’t. If you watch all his races, he gallops out past everybody that stopped.”
Time for Trouble has won eight races and approximately $600,000 since Hiles and co-owner Paul Parker (Thorndale Stable) won a 13-way shake, or blind draw, to claim the gelding for $8,000 in June 2021 at Churchill Downs.
In his first start for Hiles and Parker, a Paducah, Ky., restaurant owner, Time for Trouble set a course record for 1 3/8 miles on the grass (2:13.05) in a July 2021 starter allowance at Belterra Park. Although winless in 10 career stakes races, Time for Trouble finished third in the $600,000 Essex Handicap (G3) at 1 1/8 miles last March at Oaklawn and fourth, beaten just 1 ¾ lengths, in the $350,000 Suburban Stakes (G2) at 1 ¼ miles last June at Saratoga.
Time for Trouble, who has chased marathon superstar Next, also owns an allowance victory at 1 5/16 miles on the turf and an allowance victory at 1 3/16 miles over a muddy surface in January 2024 at Oaklawn. Time for Trouble, in his next start, finished third in the Essex.
Hiles said he considered running Time for Trouble in last Saturday’s Essex before opting for the Temperence Hill.
“A mile and an eighth is just a little bit short for him,” Hiles said “Of course, you’re going to have the better horses in those stakes races, but the (farther) distance he goes, the better he is. In making a decision this year between the Essex and the Temperence Hill, we don’t have Next to compete against because he’s been on the sidelines. Masqueparade’s going to give you a hard run going a mile and a half. He’s proven he can do it, but I think we’re just as good as him. As far as all the other horses in there, who knows? That’s kind of our thinking going into it.”
Time for Trouble (6-1) is scheduled to break from post 3 under Rafael Bejarano.
The consistent Sir Greylind – first, second or third in all seven lifetime starts – was runner-up in the General MacArthur. He also finished second in his last start, a 1 1/16-mile allowance Feb. 16 at Oaklawn. Masqueparade (9-2) exits a third in the 1 1/8-mile Feb. 28 local allowance prep behind fellow Temperence Hill entrant Game Warden (4-1), who is trained by Norm Casse.Masqueparade is seeking to become the first two-time Temperence Hill winner.
