Mr Freeze gets chance to turn it around in Fayette Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Before the coronavirus crisis hit, Mr Freeze was cruising along as one of the top milers on the planet.

In a five-race span to end 2019 and begin 2020, Mr Freeze earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in all but one of them, bookending victories in the Grade 3 Ack Ack and Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile with second- or third-place finishes in the Grade 2 Fayette, Grade 1 Clark, and Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.

“He was the goods,” said Dale Romans, who trains Mr Freeze for Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister. “We were all set to run in Dubai and then everything fell apart.”

:: Get DRF Betting Strategies for Keeneland’s Saturday card

Suffice it to say the 5-year-old horse has had a difficult time during the pandemic, and now, with four weeks until the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile is run at Keeneland, he’s not even among the top 10 contenders – unless he can right the ship Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette.

Since winning the Gulfstream Park Mile in February, Mr Freeze has finished third in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, sixth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, and sixth in the Grade 2 Alysheba on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs, his most-recent start.

“It’s time for him to turn it around,” Romans said. “He’s really been training well. He’s primed for a big effort, absolutely.”

Romans said “something a little shorter” than the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Fayette is ideal for Mr Freeze, “but if he brings his ‘A’ race, it won’t matter.”

“When he’s right, he’s right,” Romans said.

Mr Freeze, with Javier Castellano riding for the first time, will break from post 6 and faces nine other 3-year-olds and up in the 63rd Fayette, which directly precedes the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup as the eighth of 10 Saturday races at spectator-free Keeneland. Mr Freeze figures on or near the lead in a race lacking an abundance of early speed.

Tax (post 8, Tyler Gaffalione) is among the other top contenders. The 4-year-old gelding was claimed here nearly two years ago by trainer Danny Gargan, who’s had him cranking back up all summer at Saratoga. Gargan gave Tax time off following a fifth-place finish in the Oaklawn Handicap in early May.

:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.

Tax is a two-time graded winner in New York and has earned nearly $900,000, almost all of it for Randy Hill and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing.

“He’d had a hard campaign for a long time, so we turned him out for a while,” Gargan said by phone early Thursday from New York before boarding a Lexington-bound plane. “He’s doing great and he runs well fresh. I think I’ve got him fit enough, so I’m expecting a big effort.”

Other considerations include a second Romans starter in Coastal Defense (post 1, Joe Talamo), and Aurelius Maximus (post 10, Ricardo Santana Jr.), both sharp last-out allowance winners; Crafty Daddy (post 3, Brian Hernandez Jr.) and Captivating Moon (post 2, Julien Leparoux), the respective 1-2 finishers in the off-the-turf Opening Verse during Kentucky Derby week at Churchill Downs; and Mo Mosa (post 9, Florent Geroux), the Oklahoma Derby runner-up and the only 3-year-old in the lineup.

Rounding out the cast are Mirinaque, Title Ready, and Rated R Superstar.

The Fayette, named for the county in which Keeneland is located, dates to 1959. Royal Harmony, trained by Pat Devereux Sr., won the race three straight years (1969-71) and is still the only horse in track history to do that in a stakes.