Spirit And Glory surges late to win Miss Liberty Stakes
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Spirit And Glory overcame some early trouble, wound up getting a good ride from Nik Juarez, and won the $100,000 Miss Liberty Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
Scotish Star, the 2-5 favorite for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Paco Lopez, now has finished second in all three of her 2023 starts.
Spirit And Glory, an Ireland-bred imported from Ireland early in 2022 after making four synthetic-surface starts, won the $209,000 Virginia Oaks last summer at Colonial Downs but failed to progress much her next four races. She was fourth following a freshening when part of a paceless renewal of the Plenty of Grace Stakes last month at Aqueduct and improved in her second start this form cycle for trainer Robert Falcone Jr.
The tempo in the Miss Liberty hardly was swift by Monmouth standards, 24.30 and 48.36, but Spirit And Glory got some help when Kalifornia Queen pestered Scotish Star on the lead. Going into the first turn, Spirit and Glory got hung up first with Irie Empress and then was steadied when Kalifornia Queen came down into the No. 2 path. The filly can be a tough ride under the best of circumstances, Falcone said.
“She got a little rank early on and got squeezed a few times but [Juarez] got her to relax after that and got her into a rhythm,” Falcone said.
Switched off, Spirit And Glory coasted along in fourth, going past Irie Empress into the far turn and getting just behind the protracted scrum between Scotish Star and Kalifornia Queen. Juarez saw Lopez on Scotish Star floating out Kalifornia Queen and ducked to the inside, coming up the rail, collaring Scotish Star at the sixteenth pole, and pushing past to win by three quarters of a length. Kalifonia Queen held third as the winner clocked 1:41.63 for 1 1/16 miles over a firm grass course.
Spirit And Glory, who paid $8.60 as the second choice, races for a partnership and is by Cotai Glory out of Supreme Spirit, by Invincible Spirit. She finished fifth, fifth and seventh in three graded races last year, but Falcone, who said he’d give his charge ample time to recover from her race, suggested a return to graded-stakes competition is in the offing.
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