Remsen 1-2 finishers head south

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Leave the Light On and Frosted, the 1-2 finishers from Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, are heading to south Florida for the winter as their trainers plot out a campaign that each hopes ultimately gets his charge to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2.

Leave the Light On, trained by Chad Brown, left Monday by van for the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida. Brown said he would look at races like the Holy Bull at Gulfstream on Jan. 24 or perhaps the Withers at Aqueduct on Feb. 7 for Leave the Light On’s 3-year-old debut.

“He has speed, and he can carry it. Taking him to Florida is probably a good option where hopefully I won’t have any interruptions in his training due to weather,” Brown said. “Obviously, I have options if I wanted to bring him back to Aqueduct to run. Speed is normally good on the inner track. At Gulfstream, speed seems to be pretty good as well every year on the main track.”

While Leave the Light On took advantage of his speed over a speed-favoring track, Brown isn’t convinced he’s simply a front-runner.

“Only time will tell if he proves to be a need-the-lead type of horse,” Brown said. “I’m not convinced that he is, the way he trains. He’s been in different situations working in the morning and outworking some nice prospects of ours – that’s why we put him in the Remsen.”

Meanwhile, Frosted, who broke from post 13 and raced three to four wide throughout, ran a terrific race to be second, a half-length behind Leave the Light On and eight lengths in front of third-place finisher Keen Ice.

“He took the worst of it; he’s improving every start,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

Believing that the Remsen came up a big race speed-figure-wise, McLaughlin said he likely won’t race Frosted until the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 21.

Leave the Light On was assigned a 90 Beyer, while Frosted got an 89.