Marley's Freedom Stretches Out in Go For Wand Handicap

Despite what he felt was a disappointing run as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), trainer Bob Baffert knows Cicero Farms' Marley's Freedom is a good sprinter.

But her next start isn't about what she is now. It's about what she could be in the future.

The 4-year-old Blame  filly—who rattled off three straight graded stakes victories before her Breeders' Cup fourth, capped by a 3 1/4-length score in the Ketel One Ballerina Stakes (G1)—will stretch out to a mile for the first time Dec. 1 in the $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

CROSBY: Marley's Freedom Much the Best in Ballerina

If she handles the one-turn mile well, stretching out farther and around two turns could be ahead during her 5-year-old campaign in 2019.

"We know she's a good sprinter, and she came out of the Breeders' Cup really, really well and is training well," Baffert said. "We want to stretch her out, and next year we want to run her farther. I think she'll go two turns eventually."

The Go for Wand figures to be an advantageous time to try a longer distance for Marley's Freedom as the one-turn mile more resembles a sprint than a route race, and the field only features one other graded winner—Pacific Wind.

The Curlin  filly is winless in her last three starts, but she placed in the Oct. 7 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1) last time out and all three have been beyond a mile. She's won her last two starts at a flat mile, a Keeneland allowance in April and the May 6 Ruffian Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park, her first two starts for Chad Brown after she began her career on the West Coast and mostly raced on grass.

LARUE: Pacific Wind Blows By the Competition in Ruffian Stakes

Brown's second entry, Your Love, wasn't far off from graded glory in the Sept. 23 Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2), where she finished a half-length behind grade 1 winner Union Strike, but like Marley's Freedom, she's also stretching out to a mile for the first time.

Rounding out the field is last-out Pumpkin Pie Stakes winner Sower, Sept. 9 Royal Delta Stakes victress Come Dancing, five-time New York-bred stakes winner Bonita Bianca, stakes-placed Browse, and maiden winner Tigalalu.

Entries: Go for Wand H. (G3)

Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, December 01, 2018, Race 6

• Grade III
• 1m
• Dirt
• $250,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 2:06 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Marley's Freedom (KY)	Mike E. Smith	124	Bob Baffert	1/1
2	2Browse (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	116	Claude R. McGaughey III	15/1
3	3Sower (KY)	Manuel Franco	115	Linda Rice	8/1
4	4Bonita Bianca (NY)	Jose Lezcano	116	Jason Servis	6/1
5	5Your Love (KY)	Javier Castellano	118	Chad C. Brown	4/1
6	6Tigalalu (KY)	Junior Alvarado	112	Mark A. Hennig	30/1
7	7Come Dancing (KY)	John R. Velazquez	117	Carlos F. Martin	10/1
8	8Pacific Wind (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	122	Chad C. Brown	6/1