Cost of Freedom makes it look easy in Cal Cup Sprint

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Cost of Freedom was kept at Hollywood Park for Saturday’s $100,000 California Cup Sprint instead of being sent to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint next weekend.

After watching Cost of Freedom win by 6 1/4 lengths, owner Gary Barber wished he had tried both.

Ridden by Joe Talamo, Cost of Freedom ($3.40) won the Cal Cup Sprint with little difficulty, setting a modest pace of 22.24 and 45.05 seconds, and finishing in the fastest six furlongs of the meeting – 1:08.58.

“I almost feel I want to go and run in the Breeders’ Cup,” Barber said.

Trained by John Sadler, Cost of Freedom, 7, ended a three-race losing streak in the Cal Cup Sprint, dating back to the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap here in June. A fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Ancient Title Stakes here on Oct. 9 led to the decision to start in the Cal Cup.

“I guess if I knew the Breeders’ Cup was on synthetics, we might have gone,” Barber said. “We think he’s better on synthetics. This is his home track.”

The BC Sprint will be run on a dirt surface.

Barber and his brother, Cecil, nearly had the exacta in the Cal Cup Sprint. Runaway Bandido, a 20-1 shot, outfinished the Barbers’ horse A Lil Dumaani by a head for second in the field of five.

Cost of Freedom, by Cee’s Tizzy, has won 9 of 19 starts and $752,263. Barber said Cost of Freedom will be considered for the $100,000 Vernon Underwood Stakes on Nov. 25, and could be sent to Dubai for the winter.