Scipio, Freedom's Not Free to battle in the Baffle
?q=100)
ARCADIA, Calif. – Scipio is the class of the $100,000 Baffle Stakes, and Freedom’s Not Free is the speed. Who will win the turf sprint for 3-year-olds Sunday at Santa Anita? Pick heads or tails.
Although seven are entered in the Baffle, stakes-placed Scipio and highly rated maiden winner Freedom’s Not Free figure as the choices. The betting market usually gets it right in the Baffle, as favorites have won the past four years and six of the last nine.
Stakes-placed Fomo Joe and 2-for-2 Triple Diamonds merit respect, while the outsiders are Game Warrior, Style Cat, and Maximus. At 6 1/2 furlongs on the hill, the Baffle is shorter than Scipio typically runs and the trainer of Freedom’s Not Free wanted to run. No matter.
“I think he’ll be fine [sprinting],” said Scipio’s trainer, Richard Baltas.
After a third-place debut at five furlongs, Scipio’s four recent starts were at a mile, including a pair of in-the-money finishes in Grade 3s and a solid maiden win last out. Following the maiden win, jockey Flavien Prat suggested Baltas consider removing blinkers.
“He wants to see other horses,” Prat told Baltas.
When his career began last summer, Scipio was easily distracted and Baltas ran him in blinkers. On Sunday, the blinkers will be off.
“He’s maturing, and we don’t think he needs them,” Baltas said.
Scipio has been galloping without blinkers, and Prat worked him in a bullet half-mile in 47 seconds on Feb. 10. A runner-up two starts back in the Grade 3 Cecile B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar, Scipio is the most accomplished runner in the Baffle field, but he is not as fast as Freedom’s Not Free, who switched to turf for his Jan. 5 comeback and scored a decisive maiden victory with an 83 Beyer Speed Figure that tops the Baffle field.
Freedom’s Not Free, sired by Omaha Beach, is better this winter on turf than he was last summer on dirt. Two factors have contributed to his improvement.
“I think it had to be turf, mostly, and running on Lasix last time probably made a difference as well,” said trainer Mark Glatt.
Freedom’s Not Free won by a length and a half under Frankie Dettori, who rides back in the Baffle. Freedom’s Not Free cannot be treated with Lasix in the stakes.
Glatt hoped to run Freedom’s Not Free at a longer distance after the maiden sprint, but an allowance route was unavailable. Six and a half furlongs is fine for now, however, and though the horse Freedom’s Not Free defeated in the maiden race returned to lose as an odds-on favorite, Freedom’s Not Free should get an advantageous trip pressing modest fractions in the Baffle.
Glatt has also entered Triple Diamonds, whose first two starts were turf sprints against California-breds. He won his debut by a head and an allowance by a nose.
“You don’t see too many young horses that win their first two starts in a battle,” Glatt noted. “He wants to beat you.”
Umberto Rispoli rides Triple Diamonds.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.