Frost Point leads every step of the way in the Heavenly Prize Invitational (Chelsea Durand)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Godolphin’s graded-stakes placed Kentucky homebred Frost Point made every pole a winning one to secure her first career stakes score with a 6 1/4-length romp in Saturday’s $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational at the Big A.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the regally-bred daughter of Frosted, out of Grade 1-winner Balletto, was hustled from her inside post by Jorge A. Vargas, Jr. and set a moderate tempo in the one-turn mile for older fillies and mares with Falconet tracking in second position. She opened up by 5 1/2-lengths at the stretch call and ran through the wire in a final time of 1:37.24.
Leana Willaford, Mott’s New York-based assistant, credited Vargas, Jr. for a head’s up ride in the compact four-horse field.
“There wasn’t a lot of speed in there, so I told Jorge if she breaks and she’s there, the rule for Bill Mott is, ‘don’t take away anything coming easy,’” Willaford said. “She looked good this morning and came out of the race well.”
Frost Point finished third in both of her previous stakes outings, completing the trifecta in the Top Flight Invitational here in April under Manny Franco and the Grade 3 Allaire DuPont Distaff with Flavien Prat up in May at Pimlico Race Course.
Vargas, Jr. had ridden Frost Point just once previously, finishing a closing second in an optional claimer here last February.
“He rode her once last year and they got in a little bit of trouble. He really felt bad about it, so I was glad he was able to get back on for the stakes win,” Willaford said.
Godolphin USA’s Director of Bloodstock Michael Banahan spoke of their desire to get Frost Point a graded stakes victory and said the Grade 3 Doubledogdare on April 21 at Keeneland, a race won last year by subsequent Champion Older Dirt Female Malathaat, could be a viable option.
“That race yesterday was the plan all along since we got her back into training and now we’re hoping to step her up into graded stakes company,” Banahan said. “She’s graded placed already, so we’ll try to pick our spots with her through the spring. The Doubledogdare at Keeneland is a race that might make a little bit of sense with her. Hopefully, we can have a good year with her and we’ll pick our spots as we go along.
“We gave her a break last year and she just ended up getting light and lean on us, so we brought her back to the farm,” Banahan continued. “She looks fantastic and the time off did her well. She’s responded with those two really nice wins and yesterday was fantastic to get the stake win. We were hopeful she was going to be able to do something like that. For a short field, it was a decent race. She proved that she’s doing well and it was nice to get a stakes win for her.”
Frost Point banked $68,750 in victory, while improving her record to 10-4-3-2. She returned $9.10 for a $2 win bet.
