Godolphin sweeps turf sprint stakes with Final Frontier, Alms

ELMONT, N.Y. – With a little added distance and an assist from his stablemate, Final Frontier turned the tables on Shekky Shebaz in Saturday’s $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational at Belmont Park.

On Aug. 30, in the Lucky Coin Stakes going 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga, Shekky Shebaz had things his own way on the lead, beating Final Frontier by 1 3/4 lengths.

Saturday, Shekky Shebaz again set the pace, but had to deal with some pressure from Fully Vested, who, like Final Frontier, is owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Tom Albertrani. The early pace was 22.46 seconds for a quarter and 44.29 for the opening half-mile.

Jose Lezcano had Final Frontier about 1 1/2 lengths off the pace early, and advanced three wide around the far turn into contention. Inside the eighth pole, Shekky Shebaz was able to shake free from Fully Vested, but Final Frontier collared him inside the sixteenth pole and outfinished him to the wire to win by three-quarters of a length.

Final Frontier, a 4-year-old son of Ghostzapper and a full brother to multiple Grade 1 winner Better Lucky, covered the six furlongs in 1:07.39 and returned $8.20 as the second choice. Shekky Shebaz was second by 1 1/2 lengths over Fully Vested, who was followed, in order, by Gidu, Disco Partner, They Shot Sonny, and Hawkish.

Final Frontier now has three wins from five sprint tries on turf.

“He’s got the stamina to go a little bit longer – he won at a mile in the past – but since we shortened him up it’s really made a different horse out of him,” Albertrani said. “He’s a much better sprinter.”

Albertrani noted that “it was part of the plan” to have Fully Vested stay close to Shekky Shebaz early on. But, he added, “I thought he deserved the chance to run in here as well. It worked out well because he did put a little pressure on Shekky Shebaz and maybe it did soften him up a little bit.”

The Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint is five furlongs at Santa Anita. Albertrani admitted shortening up is a concern.

“I thought about that, but it’s the Breeders’ Cup, might have to take a shot in there,” he said.

Conversely, Irad Ortiz Jr., the rider of Shekky Shebaz, said he would look forward to cutting back to five furlongs.

“It’s probably better for him,” Ortiz said.

Alms last to first in Matron

Godolphin Racing made it a sweep of the turf sprint stakes run on Saturday’s card when Alms rallied from last to win the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths over pacesetting Time Limit. It was 2 1/2 lengths back to A Freud of Mama in third.

The win was the second in as many starts for Alms, a daughter of City Zip trained by Michael Stidham. She won her maiden here on Sept. 19 by 3 3/4 lengths.

Jose Lezcano rode the winner for his second stakes victory on the card.

Stidham, who watched the race from California where he was scheduled to start Synchrony in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile later in the afternoon, said Alms’s maiden win gave him “every ounce of confidence we needed” to run her back in this stakes.

Saturday, Alms was last early and appeared to bobble over ground that was labeled good and certainly was not as firm as the day she won her maiden.

Lezcano was able to gradually guide Alms to the outside and “once she leveled off it was very pretty,” Stidham said.

Alms covered the six furlongs in 1:09.30 over good ground and returned $3.30 as the 3-5 favorite.

“At the three-eighths pole I had to start asking her,” Lezcano said. “She’s still young and a little bit green. I wanted to ask her a little bit earlier because I know the turf is playing a little bit fast today and I didn’t want to fall too far behind.”

Though Alms has won both of her starts at six furlongs, Stidham said he’d be more inclined to run her in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile than in the Juvenile Turf Sprint at five furlongs. Both races are on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita.

Stidham said Alms would return to her base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland before any decisions are made.