Calder: R Free Roll will return to facing females in Azalea

MIAMI – R Free Roll was the star of last Saturday’s Summit of Speed Preview show at Calder. A 3-year-old filly by Rockport Harbor, R Free Roll took on the boys in the six-furlong Unbridled Stakes and ran them off their feet, sprinting to a 6 3/4-length triumph while earning a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. Her final time of 1:10.19 was .09 of a second faster than Black Diamond Cat covered the same distance winning the day’s main event, the Ponche for older horses.

R Free Roll, a homebred owned by Averill Racing and Silver Oak Stable, is currently trained by Ralph Ziadie. She also defeated males when she was with his son Kirk as a 2-year-old here last fall.

‘‘I ran her against the boys because I thought it might come up an easier spot than the filly race,” said the elder Ziadie. “I also didn’t want to run her against my son’s two fillies, both of whom had speed and might have run with her on the lead.”

Ziadie was referring to Dreaming of Sophia and Dreaming of Lucy.

Ziadie said he felt R Free Roll was sitting on a big race but did not expect her to run a 101 Beyer on Saturday.

“She’d been training well and I felt she would run her best race, but I never thought she’d run a triple-digit Beyer,” said Ziadie.

Although R Free Roll defeated males in the Summit Preview, Ziadie said he will likely run her against fillies and mares on the July 6 Summit of Speed card, in the Grade 3 Azalea.

“I’m a little afraid some tougher horses might ship in for the Carry Back than we beat here this past weekend, so in all likelihood she’ll be back with fillies for the Summit of Speed,” said Ziadie.