Secured Fredom, Robusta to Lewis Stakes

The recent maiden race winners Robusta and Secured Freedom are intended starters in the $100,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Santa Anita on Feb. 7. The Lewis is the first two-turn stakes on dirt for open company at the track’s winter-spring meeting.

Robusta, a colt by Accelerate, led throughout his second start, a one-mile maiden race on Jan. 9. Owned by Calumet Farm, Robusta won by a half-length, a turnaround from a seventh-place finish in a field of 10 in a maiden race at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 22.

“It’s such a good thing to have a win at Santa Anita around two turns,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “It sets him up with good opportunities.”

O’Neill won the 2012 Lewis Stakes with I’ll Have Another, the winner of the Kentucky Derby that year.

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Secured Freedom, trained by Tim Yakteen, was fourth in the maiden race on Nov. 22 that included Robusta. Secured Freedom won a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs by 4 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita on Dec. 28. The Lewis Stakes will be the first start at a mile for Secured Freedom.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s what we have available,” Yakteen said. “It will be a big test. We are going from a one-turn maiden to going two turns in a stakes against horses with more experience. He seems like he’s matured a little bit and settled down a little bit. He’s been doing well.”

Secured Freedom, a colt by Practical Joke, races for the partnership of Pierre and Leslie Amestoy and Roger Beasley.

The list of candidates for the Lewis Stakes includes Intrepido, who won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 4 and was fifth in his last start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on Oct. 31 for trainer Jeff Mullins.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who's won the Lewis Stakes a record 13 times, has won its last seven runnings. Baffert said in a text message on Wednesday that he will determine his Lewis runners this weekend, pending workouts.

In the buildup for California-based horses to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, the Lewis is followed on the Santa Anita schedule by the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 7 and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 4.

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