SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — When William Morey won a two-way shake to claim Orange Freeze for $40,000 June 23 at Belmont Park, it wasn’t necessarily with the intent of running her back in a stakes race. After all, at the time Morey dropped the claim slip, Orange Freeze had yet to win a race. However, Orange Freeze won that June afternoon and then backed it up Wednesday with a stakes victory at Saratoga, rallying from eighth-place under Joel Rosario to win the $150,000 Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths. Bernt Again, who ironically beat Oranage Freeze for maiden $40,000 claiming in May, rallied to finish second, three lengths clear of Mz Big Bucks, the winner of the Cupecoy’s Joy division of the NYSS and Statue of Liberty favorite. “The good thing is with these New York-bred and New York-sired specifically you have a chance to catch one like this and we got lucky,” Morey said. Morey, who is also the owner, said he claimed Orange Freeze because, based on her May 28 race, “it looked like maybe she was on the improve a little bit,” he said. :: DRF's 2023 Saratoga headquarters: Previews, past performances, picks, recaps, news, and more. Morey also ran Red Moon in the Statue of Liberty and she was coming out of a third-place finish in the Cupecoy’s Joy, a performance that made her go off the 9-5 favorite Wednesday. Both Orange Freeze, under Rosario, and Red Moon, under Irad Ortiz Jr., were racing side-by-side down the backstretch with just one horse behind them. Going into the far turn, Rosario went four-wide while Ortiz tried to save ground along the inside. Ortiz got stopped a bit, while Rosario had a clear run, got to Mz Big Bucks inside the eighth pole and drew clear. “Going down the backside I was pretty confident, both of my fillies started moving and I thought those fillies [in front] were going to come back,” Morey said. “I saw one go inside and one go outside and I said ‘perfect, just run them down.’ “ Orange Freeze, a 3-year-old daughter of Freud, covered the mile over firm ground in 1:37.75 and returned $10.60 as the third choice. Morey had a win and a second from three starters at Saratoga on Wednesday, his first two winners at Saratoga after going 0 for 12 at last year’s meet. According to Equibase, Morey has won 1,816 races. “I’ve done Del Mar for 20 years, I’m a fan of Saratoga today,” Morey said. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.