By Justina Severni
Frosty Margarita's victory in Sunday's Key Cent S. at Aqueduct was a rewarding win for owner/breeder Chip Acierno of Gabrielle Farm. With just two broodmares in its band and five horses in training, a stakes win from a second-generation Gabrielle Farm homebred is noteworthy.
“I loved it,” Acierno said of the win. “Any time you have a homebred, particularly a second-generation homebred, win a stakes race–that's why we do this.”
Frosty Margarita, who was second on debut at Belmont July 9, graduated against fellow Empire-breds Aug. 24 at Saratoga. The dark bay was runner-up in two state-bred stakes–the Joseph A. Gimma S. in Elmont Sept. 27 and the Maid of the Mist S. Oct. 24.–before going pillar-to-post in the Key Cents.
Gabrielle Farm purchased second dam Ginger N Sugar for $40,000 at the 2003 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale. The multiple allowance winner produced dam Mango Margarita, who was unraced. Frosty Margarita is the second foal out of Mango Margarita and has a yearling half-sister by Freud and a weanling half-brother by Teuflesberg.
Acierno, who has been in racing for almost two decades, boards his two mares at Saratoga Glen Farm.
“Generally, they're good mares that I had bred,” Acierno said of the mares he keeps for his band. The breeder noted that, although they occasionally sell weanlings or yearlings, Gabrielle Farm mostly breeds with the track in mind.
“We basically breed to race,” he explained. “It's much more rewarding than claiming or buying a horse when it's your own.”
The Brooklyn native, who owns and operates a corporate car service, has always had an interest in racing.
“My ancestors had stagecoaches and about 100 horses in Italy and they actually raced some of them,” Acierno said. “I think it's in my blood because the first day I stepped on the track, I was in love with it.”
As for Frosty Margarita who, “came out of the race really well,” according to Acierno, she will be aimed for a start in the New York Stallion Series Fifth Avenue Division S. at Aqueduct Dec. 20.
“It's super rewarding when you have a homebred win a race,” Acierno concluded. “For us, this makes all the bad days go away. All the stuff you go through as an owner during the year, whether it's financially or seeing your horses win or lose or get hurt, when you have a good one like this, it makes it so much more rewarding.”
KEY CENTS S., $100,000, AQU, 11-22, (S), 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.85, ft.
1–#FROSTY MARGARITA, 120, f, 2, by Frost Giant
1st Dam: Mango Margarita, by Not For Love
2nd Dam: Ginger N Sugar, by Gold Token
3rd Dam: Northern Nation, by Northrop
O/B-Gabrielle Farm (NY); T-Rudy R. Rodriguez; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$60,000. Lifetime Record: 5-2-3-0, $195,800.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton or the Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
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