Frosted looks to put icing on stud career

The Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap has a history of being a stallion-making race, as it showcases the brilliance so desired in the American market. That history is why Frosted, most recently seen finishing fifth in the Dubai World Cup in March, will step outside of his comfort zone for Saturday’s edition of the prestigious event, cutting back in distance as he returns to the races.

“He’s doing very well coming off Dubai,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “He’s probably better going a little farther, but the Met Mile is such an important race in terms of a stallion-making race that we decided we would run him there.”

Frosted, who runs in the Godolphin blue of Sheikh Mohammed, already has outstanding stallion credentials looking ahead to his future at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky. The son of North America’s two-time reigning leading sire Tapit, who commands the continent’s highest stud fee, is already a classic-placed Grade 1 winner.

McLaughlin will saddle two other stallion prospects in the Met Mile in Godolphin’s Marking, a Grade 1-placed son of Bernardini, and Shadwell Stable’s Tamarkuz, a son of Speightstown who won last year’s Group 2 Godolphin Mile before finishing fourth in the Metropolitan. Tamarkuz is coming off an eight-month layoff since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap last October at Belmont.

“He’s been training well,” McLaughlin said. “He came up from Camden and has been working weekly, so we’ll see where we’re at off the long layoff. Like I said, the Met Mile is such an important race, so we want to give our horses the best opportunity to win it.”

The Met Mile has been won throughout its 122-year history by prominent stallions such as Tom Fool (1953), Native Dancer (1954), and Buckpasser (1967). A Grade 1 race since the North American graded stakes system began in 1973, it has been won in that more recent history by the likes of prominent sires Tentam (1973), Cox’s Ridge (1978), Fappiano (1981), Gulch (1987-88), and Ghostzapper (2005).

The race has continued to produce good young sires in recent years, including Quality Road (2010) and Shackleford (2012).