Frosted Tries to Follow Cairo Prince in 'Bull

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After winning last year's Holy Bull Stakes (gr. II) with Cairo Prince  , trainer Kiaran McLaughlin returns to the $400,000 race Jan. 24 at Gulfstream Park with another strong contender in the highly regarded Frosted.



Godolphin's striking gray son of Tapit   and the graded stakes-winning mare Fast Cookie will make his 3-year-old debut in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile Lambholm South Holy Bull, the ninth on an 11-race program at Gulfstream. Frosted drew the rail as the 5-2 second choice on the morning line and will be ridden for the third straight time by Irad Ortiz Jr.



Frosted has not run since finishing second in the Remsen Stakes (gr. II) at Aqueduct Racetrack Nov. 29, the colt's first time contesting a graded stake.



Breaking from the far outside in a field of 13 that day, Frosted pursued the pace four wide going into the first turn and was not able to save much ground from there on out. He launched a three-wide bid into the stretch and was ultimately beaten just a half-length by Leave the Light On. He was also eight lengths clear of the third-place finisher, Holy Bull entrant Keen Ice.



McLaughlin believes that experience only bettered his trainee.



"His last race was very unlucky to be post 13 on a speed-biased track, and he just missed and ran great," McLaughlin said. "Since that race, every day I just feel like he's more focused and training great. He works a half in :48 (seconds) and keeps going out in a minute and out in 1:14, so he's really training very well, like you'd like to see in a horse."



In 2014, McLaughlin came into the Holy Bull with another Remsen runner-up for Godolphin, Cairo Prince, who would dazzle. He won by an emphatic 5 3/4 lengths and stamped himself as a top Florida Derby (gr. I) and Triple Crown contender. While McLaughlin says the two runners are quite different, he hopes they can have similar on-track accomplishments.



"Cairo Prince was a little bit ahead of Frosted probably at this time last year," McLaughlin said. "He was a very talented horse. Frosted is still on the improve and still learning his lessons well, and hopefully we see that big race like we saw with Cairo Prince last year; the Holy Bull was his big race. Frosted does everything right and is training great, so hopefully they're similar (Saturday) afternoon."



Frosted graduated in his third career start by an impressive 5 1/4 lengths last October at Aqueduct following a pair of runner-up finishes in maiden allowance company.



"He's very well bred, and he's a beautiful horse, a big, strong horse," McLaughlin said. "So that's another good thing. We have the one-hole, and they're not going to push him around, because he's a big boy. He's just talented, and he appears to have all the attributes you want. Everything is there. He checks every box."