A determined Pyrite Mountain defeated Power Phil in a photo finish to capture Sunday’s $125,000 Kingarvie Stakes, at Woodbine.
The bay son of Silent Name, trained by Mark Frostad for the Awesome Again Racing Limited Partnership, broke his maiden in style with a spirited stretch run, under jockey Patrick Husbands, to overtake pacesetter Power Phil.
Power Phil set splits of :24.60, :49.16 and 1:13.63 in the 1 1/16-mile ‘Poly’ route, with Pyrite Mountain tracking from second position.
Pyrite Mountain rallied wide through the turn and needed the length of the stretch to overtake a courageous Power Phil in the shadow of the wire for a narrow nose score in 1:45.46. Jade Dragon closed for show money in front of Niigon’s Glory.
Frostad was pleased with the effort of the bay colt, who entered the Kingarvie off a strong second-place effort in his debut on November 4.
“He ran a huge race that day and it was against open company,” recalled Frostad. “We ran him that day with this race in mind, on the off chance that he would show enough to run in this race. And he did, so here we are.”
The win marked the fifth stakes win at Woodbine this season for Frostad. The Hall of Fame conditioner admitted to being a little concerned with Pyrite Mountain’s wide trip.
“At the first turn, we got hung out pretty wide and lost a lot of lengths,” said Frostad. “I thought that was coming back to haunt us, but fortunately Patrick prevailed and the horse ran a game race.”
Pyrite Mountain banked $75,000 in victory, improving his record to one win and a second from two career starts.
He paid $6, $3.60 and $2.40, combining with Power Phil ($4.50, $3.20) for a $25.20 (8-6) exactor. An 8-6-2 (Jade Dragon, $3 to show) triactor was worth $69.40 while a $1 superfecta [8-6-2-7 (Niigon’s Glory)] came back $86.45.
