Frostmourne was much the best in the $100,000 Awad S. over the Belmont Park lawn on Saturday despite the 2-year-old Speightstown colt repeatedly having to steady before shaking clear in upper stretch to register his first stakes win.
After easily winning his debut on Sept. 3 at Saratoga, Frostmourne had an eventful trip in the Pilgrim S. (G3) on Oct. 1 before finishing fourth. For quite a while it looked as if the Green Lantern Stables homebred would suffer a similar fate in the Awad. After a good break, Jose Ortiz wrangled the headstrong colt back after being cut off in the first turn.
Stuck on the inside for the next six furlongs, the dark bay had to steady on several occasions before finding a seam two-wide coming into the stretch. Once he got in the clear, Frostmourne accelerated powerfully in the final furlong to win by 3 1/2-lengths in 1:38.12 for the mile on the yielding turf.
“He’s always trained like a nice horse,” said winning trainer Christophe Clement. “We were disappointed in the results from the Pilgrim, but that was won by a good horse (Oscar Performance). Today, I knew Jose had to fight him a little, but he was more restrained and finished very well. We’ll put him away and come back sometime next year in the spring. I’m not sure where yet, it could be Tampa, Gulfstream or Keeneland.”
Frostmourne is now 2-0-0 in three starts and has earned $119,800. The winner is a half-brother to Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) winner Karelian. His dam Leaning Tower is a sister to Queen’s Plate (G1) winner Basqueian.
Frostmourne is the milestone 75th lifetime stakes winner for Speightstown, a perennial top-10 sire who has over $6.8 million in progeny earnings this year.
