Run With Liberty will sneak up on no one after dazzling debut

ARCADIA, Calif. – Run With Liberty, an ordinary-looking filly who delivered an extraordinary debut, returns Friday at Santa Anita. She paid $30 to win first out, but there are no secrets Friday.

One month after a visually impressive turf-mile debut, Run With Liberty is favored in race 5, a turf mile for 3-year-old fillies that is the first California-bred allowance on Friday. In race 8, Letmein and The G M sprint six furlongs on dirt.

If she reproduces her debut, Run With Liberty will be the star of the show. She is trained by Jeff Mullins, whose maidens typically race into condition. Conventional thought was Run With Liberty was only prepping first out.

“We always had a hunch that she could run,” Mullins said. “But I wasn’t really sure about the distance. I told [jockey Kyle Frey], when she leaves, just grab her, take her back, and don’t let her run until the top of the stretch. It was just basically a schooling race.”

It turned out to be much more. Run With Liberty rated kindly, inched closer on the far turn, rallied wide, and raced her final quarter in 23.34 seconds to win by three lengths.

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The race was a test “to see where we were with the filly,” Mullins said. “She was a lot more than we thought she was, and the gallop-out was sick.”

Run With Liberty galloped out at least 10 lengths in front, ears pricked. Frey had his hands full pulling her up.

“We’re kind of excited about her,” Mullins said. “Not real big, she’s not really anything to look at, but she can run.”

Run With Liberty, sired by Originaire, is owned by her breeders BG Stables. Frey is back aboard the 9-5 program favorite, whose price is likely to drop.

Others include Wild West Coast, a local filly who shipped to Turf Paradise to win her career debut by more than six lengths in a turf route. Stakes-placed Cecilia Street, Vicky Lyn, Eighties, and Good Golly Dolly also are entered.

In race 8, evenly matched California-bred sprint comebackers Letmein and The G M will try to knock off program favorite Mr. Machupicchu, a distance-challenged front-runner who has lost 15 races since a maiden win a year ago.

Letmein misfired in his most recent start last summer at Del Mar, but trainer Mark Glatt will excuse the gelding.

“I think he was just getting kind of tired on the end of a long campaign,” Glatt observed.

As for his Friday comeback, Glatt said, “He’s training up to it good. I think he’ll run well.”

Abel Lezcano rides Letmein.

The G M is a heavy-bodied 5-year-old who has raced only four times. Mike Puype trains The G M, who will be making first start since he tailed off last summer.

“He’s come back in a little better shape than he left, so I expect him to run well,” Puype said.

The G M was ridden by Juan Hernandez in his first four starts, but Armando Ayuso rides Friday. Puype said the jockey switch was the result of miscommunication with a jockey agent.

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