Arctic Wolf goes gate-to-wire in $175K Awad
MHM Stables, Chad Calvert and John Goldthorpe’s Arctic Wolf doubled up on stakes wins with a frontrunning score in Saturday’s $175,000 Awad, a six-furlong sprint for juveniles moved from the Widener turf course to the Tapeta, at Belmont Park.
Trained by Jack Sisterson, the gray son of Frosted was a much-the-best winner of the five-furlong Listed Speakeasy last out on October 3 at Santa Anita Park, and returned to the Empire State for the first time since a prominent debut graduation for trainer Philip Antonacci sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs in June at Belmont at the Big A.
Privately purchased out that effort, he landed off the board when taken off the pace in the Riverside Rush in August at Ellis Park in his first outing for Sisterson, but improved four weeks later with a forward trip to land fourth the Listed Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint ahead of the Speakeasy.
“He came to us in good order from Phil’s barn and I take the blame myself for his couple of losses because I trained the speed out of him and it took me awhile to figure him out,” Sisterson said. “He’s just pure speed as he showed this afternoon.”
Arctic Wolf was guided to victory by Kendrick Carmouche from the outermost post 9, capitalizing on a sharp break to clear the field and assume command from the stalking pair of the filly More Champagne and the favored Titan Ready through the opening quarter-mile in 22.83 seconds.
Riyadh Way tipped to the three-path from fourth position entering the turn to match strides with Titan Ready and take dead aim at the leader heading into the stretch. Arctic Wolf marked the half-mile in 46 flat and still had daylight between him and a trio of pursuers with Metallican angling out for a late bid with five furlongs elapsed in 57.28. The freewheeling Arctic Wolf was never in doubt as he kicked on powerfully for the three-length score over the Samuel Marin-piloted Metallican in a final time of 1:08.99.
Riyadh Way completed the trifecta 1 3/4 lengths back of Metallican with Titan Ready staying on for fourth. More Champagne, Just Joe, Reza, McMoon and Moneta Agenda rounded out the order of finish.
The Awad was the first time Carmouche climbed aboard Arctic Wolf in the afternoon, and he said the colt made his job easy.
“Don’t look back and improve your position at every pole,” he said, with a laugh. “He was fired up, man. I let him roll, too. I wasn’t thinking about slowing him down, he was running so easy.”
Carmouche teamed up with Sisterson to win his first Grade 1 in the 2020 Cigar Mile Handicap with True Timber, and praised the work of the conditioner to find Arctic Wolf’s most effective running style.
“What a great job by Jack. They took the speed out of the horse, twice, and you can see when he put it back in last time how he responded,” he said. “Man, he was moving so good over the Tapeta, it was unbelievable.”
Sisterson said he had full faith in Carmouche to engineer a winning trip.
“I rang Kendrick this morning and all he said was, ‘I got you, brother.’ When someone has your back like Kendrick, you don’t need to worry,” Sisterson said. “I just told Kendrick, ‘we trained him to have a ton of speed, he’s one dimensional – a speed horse.’ We had the right rider on him, and he’s drawn outside. He’ll jump and have to go forward. He’s a horse that I think wants to be forwardly placed – if you take back he disengages a bit. If he’s first or second in the first eighth of a mile, you’re in good shape with him.”
Sisterson said he will take his time in choosing the next steps for the talented colt, keeping a summer campaign at Saratoga Race Course in mind for next year.
“I’ll speak with the ownership group. I think he’ll develop into a nice 3-year-old and I don’t want to run him every four or five weeks now,” Sisterson said. “At some point you have to give them a break. I think we’ll look to a spring/summer campaign and maybe bring him up to Saratoga next year.”
Bred in Kentucky by Flying B Ranch Thoroughbreds, Arctic Wolf was purchased for $47,000 at the OBS October Yearling Sale and is out of the Practical Joke mare Firewolves. He banked $96,250 in victory while returning $13.90 on a $2 win bet.
The Jamie Ness-conditioned Metallican was handed his first loss after starting his career a perfect 3-for-3, but Marin said he was pleased with the effort from the son of Volatile.
“He handled it [Tapeta] real well,” Marin said. “The race panned out as I thought, but the other one just got away with an easy pace. I was hoping somebody would go with him [Arctic Wolf], but I think my horse will be OK.”
Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont Park with an eight-race card. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
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