Marley's Freedom Digs in to Win Go for Wand
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Photo: Chad B. Harmon
Marley's Freedom (inside) holds off Come Dancing in the Go for Wand Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack
Mike Smith wasn't going to let the trip matter for Marley's Freedom this time.
After a wide journey cost her at least a placing and maybe even the win in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), Cicero Farms' Blame filly once again didn't break well in the $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap (G3) Dec. 1 at Aqueduct Racetrack, but Smith was intent on getting her into the race from post 1.
"That's been a tendency with her at times, and that's what cost her the Breeders' Cup," Smith said of the slow starts. "She literally slipped so bad, and then kind of stumbled, it took her four or five jumps to get up, and I got beat a half a length. Otherwise, I think she wins the Breeders' Cup. Not taking anything away from the winner (Shamrock Rose). They ran huge, but I got beat half a length and I got hung so far out."
Fourth behind a trio of early leaders in the chute for the one-mile dirt test Saturday, the Hall of Fame jockey made his move in the backstretch and split horses to go on the attack for early leader Browse. One of the horses Marley's Freedom passed with the move, Come Dancing, waited a bit longer, and it may have cost her and jockey John Velazquez the victory.
The Bob Baffert-trained Marley's Freedom took command midway through the turn as Come Dancing mounted her challenge, but she could never get by in a quarter-mile duel to the wire. Marley's Freedom held to win by a neck in 1:38.35 to secure her fourth graded win of the season.
"Today was the first time going a mile, but she took a breath of air, and once she got that second wind, she locked in and she wasn't going to let them by no matter what," Smith said. "We could have went around there again and they weren't getting by her."
"From the beginning, I tried to get the horse off the lead and try to make a run with her," Velazquez said of Come Dancing, who came in 6 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Pacific Wind. "I think it worked out. It was just that the other horse was a little better than us. I thought I had her. From the three-eighths pole, I was next to her and thought, 'I got her.' I got to the quarter-pole and put my head right in front of them and said, 'Well, I got her,' and the horse came back again."
After Pacific Wind came Bonita Bianca, Your Love, and Browse to complete the order of finish.
Marley's Freedom, a contender for champion female sprinter, has four wins from five starts since she moved to Baffert's barn in the spring. Bred by Jack Swain III in Kentucky out of the Formal Gold mare Relaxing Green, Marley's Freedom now has a 7-2-0 record and $815,935 in earnings from 14 starts. She was a $35,000 purchase by Cicero Farms from Brookdale Sales' consignment to the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.