GoFundMe campaign set up for ailing Cost of Freedom

DEL MAR, Calif. – A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help support recent emergency care needed for the popular former stakes runner Cost of Freedom, who finished third in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint but had descended to the $8,000 claiming level four years later before he was taken off the track by the benevolence of John Malone, now the head clocker at Del Mar.

Cost of Freedom earned more than $1 million during a 47-race career, but it was Malone, with no former connection to the horse, who got the then 10-year-old gelding off the track after his form plummeted.

Last week, Cost of Freedom, now 19, had to have life-saving, emergency surgery at San Luis Rey Equine Clinic for three intestinal stones discovered after he showed signs of colic. He lives on a family farm near Temecula.

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For further information visit the GoFundMe page here.

Florent Geroux on the go

Jockey Florent Geroux is piling up the frequent-flier miles this week with a dizzying schedule.

He is scheduled to ride in stakes races at Parx Racing on Tuesday, be back at Del Mar for cards Thursday and Friday, heads to Saratoga to ride Cyberknife in the Travers Stakes on Saturday, then returns to Del Mar for the Sunday card.

After that, Geroux’s summer camp is over. He will return to his home in Louisville, Ky., and ready for the lucrative Kentucky Downs meeting, which begins Sept. 1 and whose dates overlap with the final two weekends of Del Mar.