Not This Time Widens Margin in Leading Sire Race

One of the storylines of the 2026 season has been Not This Time's quest to gain his first leading sire title while foiling Into Mischief's bid for an eighth successive crown. Not This Time jumped into a significant early lead when Magnitude captured the $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1) in late March. Magnitude made another major contribution when adding the $2 million Stephen Foster Stakes (G1) in June, but Into Mischief has whittled away at the margin with major wins from classic contenders Renegade and Commandant, last year's Horse of the Year Sovereignty, and other grade 1 winners Shred the Gnar, Eclatant, and Hughes. That lead has now rebounded to nearly $4 million in Not This Time's favor after a weekend when a pair of 3-year-old fillies added nearly $750,000 to his tally, each capturing her first graded stakes event. By coincidence, both those winners caused something of an upset: Bodacious Bay scored by 3 1/4 lengths over Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Always a Runner in the Cotillion Stakes (G1), and Conceit gained the day by a head over long odds-on favorite Explora in the Dogwood Stakes (G3). Conceit had at least won her previous two starts—one of which was the Audubon Oaks—but Bodacious Bay owned just a single maiden win from her four previous outings. She didn't reach the racecourse until late April this year, when she finished second in a 6-furlong Oaklawn Park maiden special weight. She occupied the same position in a similar event over one mile May 22 at Churchill Downs, before breaking through to score by 4 lengths over 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs five weeks later. In her only other start, Bodacious Bay made her stakes debut in the Monmouth Oaks (G3). Following a second in the Monmouth Oaks, she was purchased privately and moved from the stable of Rodolphe Brisset to that of Saffie Joseph Jr., who also trains Bodacious Bay's Monmouth Oaks conqueror My Miss Mo. The successes of Bodacious Bay and Conceit brought Not This Time's total of 2026 stakes winners to 22, of which 13 are graded scorers. In addition to that duo and the previously mentioned Magnitude, those stakes winners include In Our Time, successful in the Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes (G1T); Claret Beret, who upset Nitrogen in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1); and Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) scorer Rhetorical. Overall, with seven crops (including his current 2-year-olds), Not This Time has been represented by 79 stakes winners. Other standouts for the son of Giant's Causeway include 2022 champion 3-year-old colt Epicenter and 2023 champion turf male Up to the Mark. Bodacious Bay is the second high-class performer produced by her dam Bodacious Babe. The first was her 2020 foal, Royal Spa (Violence), an earner of more than $1.1 million whose victories include the Locust Grove Stakes (G2), Shawnee Stakes (G3), and Heavenly Cause Stakes. Royal Spa's 2-year-old full brother Social Symbol is a winner in England this year and has also finished third in the Sirenia Stakes (G3) and Prix de la Vallée d'Auge. A daughter of Mineshaft, Bodacious Babe was a smart sprinter in her own right, taking the non-black-type 7-furlong Margate Stakes in 2016 at Gulfstream Park and earning three black-type placings, including a second in the 2017 Sugar Swirl Stakes (G3). By a strange coincidence, Bodacious Babe is a close relative to the dam of one of Into Mischief's current standouts. She is a half sister to Sippican Harbor, winner of the Spinaway Stakes (G1) and dam of Commandant, successful in this year's Florida Derby (G1) and Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2). Sippican Harbor is genetically even more closely related to Bodacious Babe, as she is by Orb, whose sire Malibu Moon is—like Mineshaft—by A.P. Indy out of a Mr. Prospector mare. Blossomed, the dam of Sippican Harbor and Bodacious Babe, is also the dam of Saayedd (a Malibu Moon gelding who was a stakes winner in the United Arab Emirates) and a pair by Justify: Awesome Result, a three-time listed winner in Japan, and Crudo, who took the 2025 Sir Barton Stakes. Blossomed was unraced but owns a high-class pedigree. By Deputy Minister, she is a three-quarters sister to Flick (Dehere)—a black-type winner whose son Greengrassofyoming recorded his most notable victory in the 2016 Stars and Stripes Handicap (G3T)—and a half sister to Cinemine, an eight-time stakes winner whose successes included the 1999 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G3). Bodacious Babe's second dam Texas Cinema is a half sister to Peter Davies, winner of England's Racing Post Trophy (G1) at 2. Her third and fourth dams, French Flick and Tres Jolie, are both stakes winners as well, and Tres Jolie is out of Leallah, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1956. In addition to being a champion on the track, Leallah was an outstanding tap-root mare, appearing as an ancestress of 65 stakes winners. These include 2021 champion 2-year-old filly Echo Zulu, 2004 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) winner Singletary, and other grade 1 winners Echo Town, Voodoo Dancer, Engine One, Pool Play, and Next Question. The cross of Not This Time with mares by Mineshaft—who stems from the same mtDNA family as Not This Time—has now produced three stakes winners from just five starters, including this year's Holy Bull Stakes (G3) winner Nearly. Overall, out of mares by sons of Mineshaft's sire A.P. Indy, there are six stakes winners from 43 starters, including Magnitude (out of a mare by Bernardini) and grade 1 winner Sibelius (dam by Pulpit). There are another four stakes winners, three graded, out of mares by A.P. Indy's grandson Tapit. We can also note similarly bred horses at the top and bottom of the pedigree in the second generation, as Giant's Causeway and Blossomed are both Northern Dancer/Blushing Groom crosses. On that note, it is interesting to observe that Awesome Again is bred on the same Deputy Minister (Northern Dancer)/Blushing Groom cross as Blossomed, and that Not This Time has Up to the Mark, fellow grade 1 winner Princess Noor, and graded winner Stress Relief out of mares by sons of Awesome Again, as well as millionaire Next out of a mare by Awesome Again himself.