Freedom Crest Turns Surprisingly Worthy

After Richie Baltas bought Freedom Crest for $32,000 out of a 1999 race at Hollywood Park, he ran him for low claiming prices five more times while indifferent fellow trainers just watched.

Freedom Crest was sprinting then, and not doing it well enough to escape the ignominy of the maiden ranks.

On his eighth try--and eligible to be claimed for $40,000--Baltas’ horse finally won a race at Hollywood in December 1999.

Baltas has never looked back. Freedom Crest became a solid allowance runner, stretching out from sprints to two-turn races, and at Santa Anita last January, in his first stakes start, he won the San Pasqual Handicap, which was also Baltas’ first stakes win.

Freedom Crest struggled after that, and despite beating only one horse in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in late July, Baltas threw him into Sunday’s $488,000 Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita.

On paper, the 5-year-old gelding was overmatched.

Even the 40-year-old Baltas might have been happy with just a piece of the purse, but Freedom Crest presented him with a one-length win and a $300,000 windfall.

Among those Freedom Crest beat were Skimming, who had been 153/4 lengths better at Del Mar, and Tiznow, the horse of the year in 2000 and winner of last year’s Goodwood.

The winner, running 11/8 miles in 1:48 4/5, paid $80 for $2, the biggest win mutuel for the Goodwood.

All of Sunday’s first three finishers could go on to the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 27, but only Mike Cooper, the managing partner for Tiznow, was firm about it. “The race I hope we win is three weeks from now,” Cooper said.

Val Royal, the oft-injured French-bred who’s run only three times in two years, might be supplemented into the Breeders’ Cup Mile for $90,000 after his two-length win in the $219,000 Oak Tree Mile. ... Sakhee is a possibility for the Breeders’ Cup Turf after he tied a record with his six-length win in the $1.4-million Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. In 80 runnings, only two Arc winners--Ribot in 1956 and Sea Bird in 1965--have won the Arc by as many as six lengths. Sakhee, the 9-4 favorite, was ridden by Frankie Dettori for owner Sheik Mohammed, the crown prince of Dubai.

Sunray Spirit, another of the sheik’s horses, won the $100,000 Cowdin at Belmont Park, where later on the card Delaware Township captured the $250,000 Forest Hills Handicap. ... Beautiful Pleasure and A P Valentine have been retired.