Laurel Park: Well-bred Freestyler seeks to back up owners’ optimism

Mike Rosen and Garth White don’t have a bankroll that even remotely resembles that of Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum. The billionaire ruler of Dubai spends freely for the best-bred horses to stock his stables in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Rosen and White, computer programmers from Michigan, play in a weekly golf league where the highest wager is a $5 skins game.

But as proof that truth is stranger than fiction, Rosen and White now own a 4-year-old gelding that Sheikh Mohammed paid $625,000 to acquire as a yearling. That horse, Freestyler, easily won his first start for his new connections and looks to make it two in a row in Wednesday’s $42,000 feature at Laurel Park.

Freestyler is among seven older horses entered to run about 1 1/16 miles in a first-level allowance that goes as race 8 at 3:55 p.m. Eastern.

Rosen and White have been partners in a number of mostly low-level claiming horses over the past dozen years with trainer Rodrigo Madrigal. During that span, Rosen estimates they have won about 28 races. Their career highlight came in the summer of 2010 when gelding Bocce Ball won three straight races at Presque Isle and Thistledown, the last at 17-1 in a second-level optional $15,000 claimer.

Rosen said he was scouting for another horse to buy at the Fasig-Tipton fall mixed sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was intrigued when he spotted Freestyler in the catalog and thrilled when his bloodstock agent, Mike McMahon, was able to acquire the gelding for the bargain price of $12,000. Freestyler was put up for sale after he was badly outrun in his career debut on turf at Belmont Park in late September.

“I guess he didn’t suit the sheikh’s program, but he sure looks good for our program,” Rosen said. “It’s ridiculous for Garth and I to own a horse with a pedigree that good.”

Freestyler, a son of Street Cry, is out of the Danzig mare Dance Swiftly, a full sister to the Hall of Fame mare Dance Smartly. As a broodmare prospect, Dance Swiftly sold for $2.4 million. Freestyler also is a half-brother to Paiota Falls, whose 4-for-5 race record includes a win in the $148,125 La Lorgnette at Woodbine.

Gelded shortly before the sale, Freestyler was sent to Madrigal’s barn at Penn National, where he cruised to a 3 3/4-length victory racing over a wet, sealed track Dec. 5. It’s impossible to tell how Freestyler looked during the race, which was run in a dense fog, but he earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure that exceeds the par of 81 for Wednesday’s allowance.

“We’re not going through the roof after one win,” Rosen said. “If he’s the real deal, we’ll find out soon enough.”