Double Down Horse Racing’s It’s Our Time rides a dominant debut score into Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, a one-turn mile for juveniles, at Belmont at the Big A. 

The Champagne is a “Win and You’re In” qualifying event for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on October 31 at Del Mar and also offers 10-5-3-2-1 qualifying points to the top-five finishers towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs. 

It’s Our Time has been installed as the even-money favorite in a nine-horse field.

Trained by Tom Amoss, the Not This Time dark bay was bumped at the start of his 6 1/2-furlong debut on August 16 at Saratoga Race Course, recovering to stalk the favored Hero Declared, taking command by the five-sixteenths and building a 10-length lead by the stretch call. 

It’s Our Time, while geared down under returning rider Luis Saez, extended to a 17 3/4-length victory over the Whit Beckman-trained Hero Declared in a final time of 1:15.63. The performance earned an impressive 94 Beyer Speed Figure and stood out among a bustling Grade 1 Alabama Day at the Spa. 

“That performance was certainly eye-opening,” Amoss said. “Now, he has to do it against accomplished horses. I think there is a bit of a target on his back. He has to show he can do it again because that was such a talked about race. He has a lot to live up to.”

Amoss said he liked the idea of stretching It’s Our Time out to the one-turn mile. 

“He ran an exceptionally quick time, and although he finished up with a lot of energy and galloped out very well, as a trainer, I’m training to transition him to go more distance gradually and we have this option of going a one-turn mile,” said Amoss. “That is a luxury, versus a two-turn race, which is why we are doing it.”

It’s Our Time [post 6, Luis Saez] completed his preparations with a five-furlong breeze in 1:01.40 in company with Spa debut-winner Big Dom on September 27 at Churchill Downs. 

“They went with each other, and it was a workout that we had designed for them to stay together,” Amoss said. “Neither of them were asked for a lot in the last part of the work. It was more of a stamina style work.” 

Bred in Virginia by South Gate Farm, It’s Our Time, a $425,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, is out of the multiple stakes-winning Summer Front mare Shea D Summer. His third dam, Circle of Gold, is a full-sister to multiple Grade 1-winner Flanders – the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly of 1994.