Juvenile Filly Skylar’s Sister Uncorks Late Run for Debut Triumph
Laurel Returns with Live Eight-Race Program Friday, August 12

LAUREL, MD – Five Hellions Farm’s Ice Cold Frosty continues to train forwardly as his connections take their time deciding on the next spot for their impressive 2-year-old maiden winner.

Ice Cold Frosty, a gray or roan son of 2013 Whitney (G1) winner Cross Traffic, graduated in his second start with a front-running 2 ½-length maiden special weight triumph July 9 sprinting six furlongs over a sloppy and sealed main track at Laurel Park.

The connections subsequently nominated Ice Cold Frosty to the $200,000 Saratoga Special (G2), a seven-furlong juvenile sprint August 13 at Saratoga which is expected to draw Gulfport, the undefeated 12 ¼-length Bashford Manor winner trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.

“We’d really like to stretch him out a little bit more. When you have a young horse like this, we definitely don’t want to go back,” Laurel-based trainer Lacey Gaudet said. “We don’t think he’s going to be a sprinter. It’s kind of a moot point for us to go back and go five-eighths or 5 ½ [furlongs]. We’re just going to be patient with him. We do think that he’s a nice horse, but we also don’t want to ambitiously place him off [a maiden] win here. We do really like him.”

Ned Williams, partners with Mike Mattese in Five Hellions Farm, liked Ice Cold Frosty enough to spend $100,000 for him at OBS’ March sale of 2-year-olds in training. He was originally purchased for $7,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s February 2021 Kentucky mixed sale by Bryan Rice, whose Woodside Ranch offered the horse this winter.

“[Williams] was just hanging out because he knows Bryan Rice, who consigned him. He was just kind of hanging out and he saw this horse. He didn’t go down there to buy anything,” Gaudet said. “We bought like four or five horses out of that sale, but he was not buying anything and then he saw this horse in the consignment and he really wanted him. He said there was something about the horse he really liked. He’s always been a very classy horse.”

Ice Cold Frosty made his debut in a five-furlong maiden special weight sprint June 25 at Laurel, pressing eventual winner Tiz No Clown throughout and finishing second by 2 ½ lengths, a half-length ahead of stablemate Quincy Cafe. The race, Gaudet said, was a learning experience.

“We love this horse in the morning. He just does everything in the morning. He checks all the boxes and hasn’t missed a beat,” Gaudet said. “Then, as 2-year-olds do, he went over to run the first time and was a completely different horse. He was nervous, he was obnoxious, just a bad actor. He really kind of threw him and us for a loop.

“He came back and came out of the race fine, and when we took him back over there the next time I knew he wasn’t going to get beat just the way he walked over. He’s really one of those kinds of horses that has to do everything once, so once he got through the first race he was like, ‘OK, now I know why I’m over here,’ and he was just so good the next time,” she added. “He was worlds better.”

Ice Cold Frosty has worked once since graduating, a half-mile breeze in 49.20 seconds July 31 at Laurel.

“We haven’t really been pressing him because there’s not a legit spot,” Gaudet said. “He won going six furlongs, and he needs to go further.”

K E M Racing Stable’s Quincy Cafe, beaten by Ice Cold Frosty in his first two starts, earned his maiden win when he was put up to first following the disqualification of Alottacents in a July 31 maiden special weight at Laurel. Out of the Harlan’s Holiday mare Toni’s Hollyday he is a half-brother to 3-year-old filly Chi Town Lady, who upset the Test (G1) August 6 at Saratoga.

“That was kind of cool,” Gaudet said. “It shows that he’s got some good pedigree, so that should be fun.”

Gaudet was also pleased to get Five Hellions Farm’s Dontletsweetfoolya back in the winner’s circle recently. The 5-year-old mare, who put together a five-race win streak to end 2020 including victories in the Willa On the Move and Primonetta at Laurel, captured an August 1 optional claiming allowance sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the turf at Colonial Downs.

It was the third win from 13 starts over the past two years for Dontletsweetfoolya, who was entered in Keeneland’s January mixed sale but didn’t meet her $140,000 reserve and wound up back with Gaudet. After making her grass debut in the one-mile Dahlia April 23 at Laurel, she was third and seventh in a pair of Laurel turf sprints this summer prior to her win in Virginia.

“That’s definitely been the most exciting part of the last couple weeks. We love to see her win and she’s been trying so hard here. She really seemed like she got a second wind on the grass. Going to the second wire here, [jockey Jevian] Toledo kept saying every time she got to that first wire she would take a deep breath thinking the race is over and didn’t finish as strong,” Gaudet said. “I’m not sure what the long-term plan is, whether they want to keep her as a broodmare. It’s still undecided.

Juvenile Filly Skylar’s Sister Uncorks Late Run for Debut Triumph

Louis J. Ulman’s 2-year-old filly Skylar’s Sister, bottled up in traffic early on, unleashed a powerful kick through the stretch on the far outside to reel in front-running Up for It and capture her race debut Sunday.

A Maryland-bred daughter of Bourbon Courage whose mare, Ava Again, was a four-time winner on the grass, Skylar’s Sister ($13.20) won the maiden special weight for juvenile fillies in 1:05.75 over an All Along turf course rated good.

“The mare won on the turf and the Bourbon Courages run pretty well on the turf. She worked good on the turf last Sunday when it was soft, so I thought she might handle it well,” winning trainer Dale Capuano said. “You never know how good they are until you put them in a race. I knew she was ready to run so that makes a difference.”

Lady Serenity, favored at 8-5, took the field of seven through fractions of 23.02 seconds for a quarter-mile and 46.75 for the half before tiring and being overtaken by Up for It in mid-stretch. Skylar’s Sister and jockey Yan Aviles rated off the pace between rivals early on and was blocked by a wall of horses coming into the stretch before getting tipped out in the clear and coming with a steady run to get up by a neck.

Up for It, by More Than Ready from Kentucky Derby (G1)-winning trainer Michael Matz, held second by a neck over Queen’s Garden, a daughter of Quality Road trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. They were followed by Anotherdaygoneby, Never Free, Lady Serenity and Roaringlikethunder.

It was the third win in two days for Capuano, who doubled on Saturday’s card with 3-year-old geldings Vance Scholars in the $100,000 Bald Eagle Derby and Dolice Vita. Capuano moved into third in the summer meet standings with 14 wins, trailing Claudio Gonzalez (17) and Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon (16).

“She ran well. She was game,” Capuano said. “She had nowhere to go for a long time but she wanted to win, so that was good.”

Notes: Five-pound apprentice Yan Aviles registered a hat trick Sunday, winning aboard Skylar’s Sister ($13.20) in Race 2 before sweeping the late double with Maximum Impact ($14.80) in Race 7 and E.P. Milton ($37) in Race 8 … Laurel returns with a live eight-race program Friday, Aug. 12 where the feature is a 5 ½-furlong allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for the Bowl Game turf course that drew 12 entries, three for the main track. There will be carryovers of $2,289.15 in the $1 Super Hi-5 and $1,358.10 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6. First race post time is 12:40 p.m.