Group One Triumph for Frost Giant
29th June 2008
Outstanding sire Giant’s Causeway was expected to get a Group One winner this weekend with hot favourite for the Hollywood Gold Cup Heatseeker, but with the scratching of that horse it was left to Frost Giant (5h Giant’s Causeway x Takesmybreathaway, by Gone West) to provide some Group One glory.
Sent out at odds of 40-1, Frost Giant showed fierce determination to fight back and win the Group One Suburban Handicap at Belmont by half a neck after being headed at the top of the stretch.
Trained by Rick Dutrow for the IHEAH Stables and partners, Frost Giant was a Group Three winner in Ireland when trained by Aidan O’Brien and has taken time to find his feet in North America coming into this race off a last start second in an allowance event on the turf at Monmouth on May 29.
The Suburban was just his third effort on dirt and his trainer originally planned to run Frost Giant on June 25 in a one-mile event at Belmont, but scratched him in order to take a shot at the Suburban.
“I just figured, what’s a mile going to do?” Dutrow said of his decision. “I could have just screwed him up if I tried it.
For the last two or three weeks, this horse settled down in the mornings. This was mostly Rudy (winning jockey Rudy Rodriguez), not just today, but in the mornings. You could see it happening. The owners paid a lot of money for this horse, and it worked out great.”
Originally purchased for $600,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and raced by a partnership of Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and John Magnier, Frost Giant was subsequently sold privately and now has the overall record of four wins and four placings from 13 starts with prizemoney of $453,901.
Frost Giant becomes the 11th Group One winner for Giant’s Causeway and like six of the others is bred on the Giant’s Causeway / Mr Prospector cross being from the Gone West mare Takemybreathaway, a half-sister to stakes-winner Mutakddim from the family of Group One winners Rhythm and Bluegrass Cat.
