Frostmourne acts unruly, but gets job done in Awad
ELMONT, N.Y. - Frostmourne overcame an eventful trip and his own immaturity to win Saturday’s $100,000 Awad Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths at Belmont Park.
Taken off the pace by Jose Ortiz after breaking on top, Frostmourne was bumped straightening out down the backside by Heaven Is Waiting, the 9-5 favorite. That put Frostmourne on the muscle and Ortiz was forced to steady him several times down the backside to avoid clipping heels with Royal by Nature, who was setting the pace.
It wasn’t until upper stretch when Ortiz was able to get Frostmourne off the rail and into the clear. Once he did, Frostmourne took over from Royal by Nature, who finished second by 3 3/4 lengths over Bonus Points. Heaven Is Waiting finished fourth and there was a dead heat for fifth between Harlan’s Harmony and D’yer Mak’er. Hot and Heavy and Bookew Bucks completed the order of finish.
Angel Arroyo, the rider of Harlan’s Holiday, claimed foul against John Velazquez and Bonus Points for alleged interference entering the stretch but the claim was dismissed by the stewards.
The win was the second from three starts for Frostmourne, a son of Speightstown owned and bred by Richard Mason’s Green Lantern Stables and trained by Christophe Clement.
Ortiz said Frostmourne broke so well that he could have been on the lead “but I didn’t want to be on the lead,” Ortiz said.
Clement said he works Frostmourne behind horses and he usually is very good. But he has had some gate issues in the afternoon which hurt him.
“In the afternoon, because he acts up at the gate, he gets immature,” Clement said. “But he ran a really good race today. On that [yielding] ground, he exploded, which you don’t see on that type of ground.”
Ortiz said he thought he had Frostmourne in perfect position before he started throwing his head up in the air.
“I tried to be gentle and then he got close to heels,” Ortiz said. “Going to the half-mile pole, three-eighths pole he did it again on me. I was hoping he didn’t do that on me anymore because after the three-eighths pole it’s time to start running.”
Frostmourne covered the mile over yielding turf in 1:38.12 and returned $9.10 as the third choice.
Clement said he would most likely put Frostmourne away for the year and bring him back in the spring of 2017.