Marley's Freedom will try two turns in Beholder Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. - Marley’s Freedom has won five graded stakes in her last six starts at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile.

Her status as a top-level sprinter is secure. Her only loss in her last six races was a fourth as the odds-on favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs in November, a defeat that cost her a championship.

Marley’s Freedom won her 2019 debut Saturday in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita. It could be her last sprint for the foreseeable future.

On Sunday, trainer Bob Baffert said Marley’s Freedom will be pointed to the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at a mile around two turns at Santa Anita on March 16. The $400,000 Beholder will be Marley’s Freedom’s first start around two turns. A 5-year-old mare, Marley’s Freedom won the Grade 3 Go For Wand Stakes at a mile around one turn at Aqueduct on Dec. 1.

“If there is a time to stretch her out and see if she can handle it, this is it,” Baffert said of the Beholder. “We know she can do a one-turn mile. It’s a Grade 1.”

In the Santa Monica, Marley’s Freedom closed from third in a field of five under jockey Drayden Van Dyke to take the lead in the final furlong.

“She ran her heart out,” Baffert said.

Marley’s Freedom, the 7-10 favorite, finished 1 1/4 lengths in front Selcourt, who set the pace. Selcourt and Marley’s Freedom were first and second in the 2018 Santa Monica Stakes.

Marley’s Freedom has won 8 of 15 starts and earned $935,935 for owners Ron and Barbara Perry, who race as Cicero Farms.

Selcourt is another contender for the Beholder Mile, trainer John Sadler said. The Beholder Mile would be Selcourt’s third start of the year and fourth in the last 12 months. Selcourt did not start for more than seven months after her win in the Santa Monica Stakes last March until the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, in which she finished a disappointing 12th.

In her first start this year, Selcourt was second at odds of 3-10 in the Kalookan Queen Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on Jan. 13.

“She’s moving forward,” Sadler said. “The Breeders’ Cup was not good and the race the other day left us head-scratching.”

As with Marley’s Freedom, Selcourt has never started around two turns.