Frost or Frippery

Frost Or Frippery (Lewis Michael--Samantha Mulder, by Lac Ouimet) has been named the 2020 Claiming Crown Horse of the Year by the Industry Awards Committee of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA). The 8-year-old gelding will be honored at the 36th annual awards dinner held by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) Sept. 11 at Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa in Paris, Ky. Claimed for $20,000 by Brad Cox for Steve Landers Racing LLC last April, Frost Or Frippery went on a five-race win streak and...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Saturday's Claiming Crown races produced a three-way tie atop the North American leaderboard for winningest horse in terms of victories in 2020. Galerio (Jump Start), Frost Or Frippery (Lewis Michael) and Combination (Alternation) all enter the final three weeks of the year tied with eight wins apiece. How about scheduling a three-way invitational among these relatively matched geldings to settle the score prior to Dec. 31? The category of most victories in a season is annually overshadowed by the purse-earnings rankings, which are...

Short-money favorites getting class relief while dropping out of graded stakes company set the tone in the nine-race Claiming Crown (CC) series Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Luis Saez won six races overall (five in CC stakes), and trainer Mike Maker was one of nine separate trainers to hit the winner's circle in the CC races, posting his 18th career CC win to lead the series that began back in 1999 as a blue-collar version of the Breeders' Cup. Conducted under starter-allowance conditions pegged to previous-race claiming prices, the CC is...