Debut winner Freedom Speaks tries Game Face Stakes while going Tapeta to dirt

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are always questions to answer when dealing with stakes races for 3-year-old fillies at this time of year. But none more so than when it comes to Freedom Speaks, a very impressive debut winner who not only steps into stakes company for the first time but also switches from Tapeta to dirt for Saturday’s $75,000 Game Face Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Freedom Speaks is one of two key contenders trainer Ron Spatz will send out in the 6 1/2 furlong Game Face along with the versatile multiple stakes winner Last Leaf. They’ll take on just four rivals led by the speedy One Identity and including the lightly raced but promising Rachel’s Rock, four-time winner Rapturous, and once-beaten Slot Queen.

The Game Face is the main event on a 12-race program that also includes a $60,000 overnight handicap for 3-year-olds and up to be decided at a mile and one-sixteenth over the Tapeta surface.

Freedom Speaks did not launch her career until May, but was worth the wait, drawing off to a six-length victory as a 6-5 favorite going five furlongs over the Tapeta. Her performance earned the daughter of American Freedom an 85 Beyer Speed Figure, easily the highest number in the Game Face lineup. The key question is whether she can repeat that effort on dirt.

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“She trains well on dirt so I don’t see any reason why she won’t run well over it, but it’s always tough to go from a maiden win to a stakes of any kind,” Spatz said. “Obviously she’s the biggest question mark in this field and we should know a lot more about her by late afternoon on Saturday.”

Last Leaf has already won two stakes on turf, including the Melody of Colors here on March 26, and finished third on dirt in the Grade 3 Forward Gal during the championship meet in February.

“Last Leaf can pretty much run on anything, although if it happens to rain and this race is run on a sloppy track, that would probably move her up quite a bit,” Spatz offered.

Freedom Speaks projects to stalk the early running under jockey Emisael Jaramillo with One Identity likely to show the way. One Identity has won three of five career starts and returns with her own kind after chasing a lightning fast pace and fading to finish seventh when taking on older horses in the Musical Romance Stakes four weeks earlier.

Rachel’s Rock returned from a nine-month layoff to register a popular maiden special weight victory on May 22 and is expected to improve off that effort. A Jacks or Better Farm homebred by Jess’s Dream, Rachel’s Rock was also entered in a one mile allowance race here on Friday.

Rapturous, like Last Leaf, is a four-time winner and will go from turf to dirt on Saturday after finishing fourth following a tardy beginning in the Honey Ryder on May 7.

Slot Queen has won her last two starts, the first over the main track at Tampa Bay Downs, the most recent a 1 1/2-length allowance victory going five furlongs over the synthetic track for which she received a career best 75 Beyer Figure.