Marley's Freedom rebounds to win Aqueduct's Go for Wand

Update: On Sunday, Dec. 9, NYRA released the corrected times of the Go for Wand Handicap and two other one-mile races on Cigar Mile Day. After review, the correct fractions are 24.52, 48.14, 1:12.14 and 1:37.50.

Original: Beaten last out as the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint favorite, Marley’s Freedom lived up to her 1-2 odds Saturday while rebounding at Aqueduct. The Bob Baffert trainee successfully stretched out to a mile to win the Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap.

Jockey Mike Smith made the trip from Southern California to guide Cicero Farms, LLC’s 4-year-old filly to the winner’s circle.

"A mile is fine. It might be about as far as we want to go," Smith said. "On a Santa Anita track, might get a mile and a sixteenth. She’s just a brilliant sprinter. Off of this performance today, I think she put herself back in the MVP (race)."

Smith also visited New York with Marley's Freedom during the Saratoga meet to win the Ballerina Stakes (G1). It marked the fourth consecutive win for Marley's Freedom, who also scored in the Great Lady M (G2) and Desert Stormer (G3). She then ran fourth in the Breeders' Cup only half a length behind upset winner Shamrock Rose.

In the Go for Wand, Marley’s Freedom broke a step slow from the rail before Smith asked her to move up behind the pacesetter, Browse.

"That's been a tendency with her at times and that's what cost her the Breeders' Cup," Smith said. "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."

Browse led the field through comfortable fractions of 25.27 and 48.56 through the first half-mile, but she was fading when three-quarters went in 1:13.34. Marley’s Freedom took over, but Come Dancing wasn’t going to let her win easy.

John Velazquez, who notched his 6,000th win Friday, encouraged Come Dancing to stick to the outside of Marley’s Freedom through the whole stretch. Marley’s Freedom was able to keep her lead by a beck, finishing the mile in 1:38.35.

"From the beginning, I tried to get the horse off the lead and try to make a run with her," Velazquez said. "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." 

Behind Come Dancing, it was another 6 3/4 lengths back to Pacific Wind. Bonita Bianca, Your Love and Browse completed the order of finish.