McLaughlin Finds Race Timing Key for Frosted

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin believes a small tweak of adding more time between races has delivered big results for Frosted, who figures to be favored in the $1.25 million Whitney Stakes (gr. I) Aug. 6 at Saratoga Race Course off his record-breaking win in the Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I).

That stakes-record 14 ¼-length score in the Met Mile was registered by Frosted June 11 at Belmont Park, which fell 56 days before the Whitney. The Whitney will be the fourth start this year for Frosted, who opened with a pair of efforts in Dubai: a runaway win in a group II race in February followed 51 days later by a fifth-place finish in the Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (UAE-I).

In his 3-year-old season last year, Frosted started nine times from Jan. 24 through Oct. 31, or one start every 29.5 days. The Tapit   colt certainly delivered a solid season; earning a pair of graded stakes wins including a score in the TwinSpires.com Wood Memorial Stakes (gr. I) and a classic-placing in the Belmont Stakes presented by DraftKings (gr. I), but McLaughlin thinks Godolphin Racing's Frosted has taken things to another level this year.

That improvement was most visible in Frosted’s Met Mile romp.

“The time to the Met Mile was very important, 70 days. He was back with (regular rider) Joel Rosario, back with Lasix, but the timing, I thought, was the most important thing,” McLaughlin said. “Last year we were running often. So the time was key and now we have time again, about eight weeks. He doesn't act like he needs it, but it looks like he's better with a little time."

While the Met Mile win turned heads, it marked a third straight top speed figure for Frosted, suggesting he has moved forward this year. In the Met Mile Frosted earned a 122 Equibase Speed Figure but that number did not mark a big jump. He earned a 118 Timeform rating in the Dubai World Cup and 124 in his season-opening Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 (UAE-II) victory. Equibase Speed Figures ratings attempt to be consistent with Timeform ratings.

Last year the top ESF earned by Frosted came in the Wood Memorial, where he was awarded a 112.

McLaughlin said even the fifth-place Dubai World Cup finish was a top effort.

"We really ran better than it looked," McLaughlin said of the Dubai World Cup. "On Trakus, we ran a long way, not much farther than California Chrome   but a little farther, and he was wide. We were just hung a little wide throughout. He ran a pretty good race.”

Now Frosted will try to become the second straight horse to sweep the Met Mile and Whitney, accomplished last year by Honor Code  , who became just the ninth horse to sweep the two races in the same season.