Texas Red, Frosted pointed to rematch in Travers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite losing his right front shoe – presumably early on – in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes, Frosted came out of the race relatively unscathed and remains on course for the $1.25 million Travers Stakes here Aug. 29, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Sunday morning.

The shoe was found by photographer Adam Mooshian, who said he discovered the shoe about 100 yards past the wire, leading McLaughlin to believe Frosted lost it shortly after the start. Though Frosted lost by only a half-length, McLaughlin was not going to use the lost shoe as an excuse.

“No, really, everything went well,” McLaughlin said. “That’s a nice horse that beat us. You want to win every time you go over there, and we ran a winning race. We ran our race, which was good. Four weeks from now, we should be better with equal weights and four shoes on.”

Frosted, the Wood Memorial winner, gave four pounds to Texas Red, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner who finished second in the San Vicente in February and in the Grade 3 Dwyer in July.

Texas Red came out of the race “really well,” according to assistant trainer Julie Clark, and also will point to the Travers.

“I went to the test barn with him, and he wasn’t blowing very hard,” said Clark, assistant to trainer Keith Desormeaux “He recovered very quick. He was really content.”

The Jim Dandy was Texas Red’s second start off a layoff and first around two turns since he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He raced up close to a modest pace and out-finished Frosted pretty handily. He earned a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

“I think he’s even going to move forward again off of this race,” Clark said. “I had a little hesitation about how fit he was, but seeing how little that seemed to take out of him, I think he was further along than I had realized. I think this will really set us up for the Travers if all goes well between now and then.”

Madefromlucky, who won the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer on Saturday, is a possible starter for the Travers, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday.

The win was the third at 1 1/8 miles this year for Madefromlucky, who also won the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont in May.

“You’d have to think about it,” Pletcher said of the Travers. “I thought he ran well. Nice horse, generally shows up and tries hard, so we’ll see how he comes out of it, talk to the connections, look at what our options would be. So far, he initially seems to have shipped back in good shape.”