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Free Fighter sets Arlington track record in Stars and Stripes
Posted: Saturday, July 23, 2011 8:28 PM
FREE FIGHTER
FourFootedFotos.com
For video of the Stars and Stripes Stakes, click here.
by Myra Lewyn
Free Fighter seized the lead in midstretch and won the $100,000 Stars and Stripes Stakes at Arlington Park on Saturday for the second time while lowering the main track record for 1½ miles.
The six-year-old Out of Place gelding, trained by Mike Reavis, comfortably held back 9-to-10 favorite Winchester as he coasted across the finish line to win by two lengths.
The 1½-mile race was shifted from the turf to the track’s synthetic Polytrack main track following heaving overnight storms in the Chicago area and lost its Grade 3 status, pending a review by the American Graded Stakes Committee.
According to local weather reports, almost seven inches of rain had fallen at O’Hare International Airport before 9 a.m. CDT on Saturday, setting a single calendar day record.
An allowance winner Arlington’s synthetic surface in 2008, Free Fighter handily snapped an 11-race winless stretch on Saturday following his victory in the 2010 Louisville Handicap (G3) on yielding turf last May at Churchill Downs. He covered Saturday’s trip in 2:31.98.
In taking the Stars and Stripes in 2009 for former trainer Chris Block, Free Fighter held off a late rally from 4-to-5 favorite Brass Hat to win by a half-length. This year, he upstaged multiple Grade 1 winner Winchester, who previously had raced exclusively on turf. The 9-to-10 favorite tried to complete a last-to-first rally but could get no closer than second on the unfamiliar surface.
Proceed Bee led into the stretch and gamely fought Free Fighter to the eighth pole and just missed second.
Free Fighter, who entered off a fourth-place finish in the Arlington Handicap (G3) improved to eight wins, two seconds, and six thirds in 32 career starts. He was claimed by Brian Lynch in March at Gulfstream Park for $62,500 from breeder Team Block and Thomas Fedro Sr. in March and made his subsequent start at Churchill Downs in this year’s Louisville Handicap, finishing seventh and then third in the Black Tie Affair Handicap in June for new owner Frank Mancari.
Illinois-bred Free Fighter, who expanded his lifetime bankroll to $441,768, is out of the multiple stakes-winning Prized mare Taxable Deduction and is a half brother to stakes winner Corrupt.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred TODAY editor
