Liberty Rings Chasing Third Stakes Win in Our Dear Peggy

Standout 2YO Filly Facing 11 Challengers in Two-Turn Debut

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Teresa and David Palmer’s Florida-bred filly Liberty Rings, a beaten favorite facing males last time out, will get added distance and equipment as she returns to her own kind chasing a third stakes win this year in Friday’s $75,000 Our Dear Peggy at Gulfstream Park.

The Our Dear Peggy for 2-year-old fillies going a two-turn mile shares top billing with the $75,000 Cellars Shiraz for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, both races scheduled for the grass. Post time for the first of 10 races 12:05 p.m.

Trained for his parents by Nicholas Palmer, Liberty Rings tracked a quick pace into the stretch under jockey Miguel Vasquez before tiring to be seventh, beaten 3 ½ lengths, in the five-furlong Hollywood Beach Sept. 26 contested over a Gulfstream turf course rated good.

“It wasn’t her day. The turf was soft and she kind of got stuck really wide,” Palmer said. “I kind of told Miguel before the race, if you don’t have a shot to win, just take care of her and bring her home in one piece.”

The Our Dear Peggy will be Liberty Rings’ third try on grass, having won the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies on the Gulfstream turf second time out May 9. Her only other off-the-board finish came June 28 at Churchill Downs when she also ran seventh in the Debutante, bouncing back with a three-length triumph over state-breds in Gulfstream’s Aug. 8 Scandalous Act, each sprinting six furlongs on the dirt.

In addition to racing beyond one turn and with blinkers for the first time, Liberty Rings will have a new jockey in Nik Juarez. They drew Post 4 in a full field of 12, are rated at 8-1 on the morning line and will carry topweight of 124 pounds.

“We were kind of hoping we’d get an allowance race in the new [condition] book but there wasn’t one. We’ve been wanting to try her two turns, so we figured this was a good spot,” Palmer said. “She’s so keyed up in her training the last few weeks, so I just thought I’d put [blinkers] on and try to get her a little more focused.

“She’s still learning,” he added. “We’re still figuring her out. I think she’s getting better and better, so I really hope that I’m right and that she wants to go two turns on the turf and we’ll see a big jump up. That’s what we’ve been waiting on.”

Liberty Rings is the only stakes winner in the Our Dear Peggy but three other horses have stakes experience – Arindel homebreds Boots and Smoke and GU Racing Stable’s Casablanca Queen. Casablanca Queen (Post 12, Leonel Reyes, 8-1, 122) graduated by 4 ¼ lengths going 7 ½ furlongs Aug. 16 in her second start and first on turf for trainer Jose D’Angelo, running ninth last out in the one-mile Juvenile Fillies Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.

Three spots ahead of Casablanca Queen that day was Smoke (Post 11, Mario Gutierrez, 6-1, 122), a one-mile maiden winner July 4 at Ellis Park in her grass debut who most recently finished fourth in a 1 1/16-mile allowance Oct. 9 on the Keeneland turf. She will be racing first time for trainer Carlos David, who previously handled Boots, now with Nick Tomlinson. Boots (Post 8, Micah Husbands, 15-1, 122) will be making her fifth start, first on the grass and fourth straight in a stakes after running fourth in the Sharp Susan, Scandalous Act and Three Ring, the latter Sept. 5, at distances from 5 ½ to seven furlongs.

Starry Night Racing’s Hammy (Post 2, Marcos Meneses, 20-1, 120) is one of six horses entering the Our Dear Peggy off a win. Based with Kent Sweezey at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, the granddaughter of 2016 Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist came from mid-pack to take a short lead into the stretch before drawing away to a 2 ½-length maiden claiming victory at the course and distance Sept. 26.

“She kind of surprised us a little bit. She had been working steadily, but the Palm Meadows track can get a little bit deep so we weren’t sure how [fit she was]. We didn’t ask her for too much before she ran, and then she ran so good,” Sweezey said. “Our horses aren’t cranked up to win first time out. Sometimes it takes them a couple times for experience as part of the learning process. I’m not sure how good the horses were behind her, but she sure did it the right way. We’re willing to take a shot.

“When you win a race as a 2-year-old your hands are tied. It’s hard to get the first-level allowance to go, so we’ve kind of sat on her longer than we usually would have,” he added. “This is literally the only thing for her without shipping her around. We figured we’d run her out of her own stall on a track she knows and likes.”

Kissed by a Rose (Post 3, Miguel Vasquez, 20-1, 122) is a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Patternrecognition and multiple stakes winners Florida Fuego and Lovesick co-owned by Kevin Dole, trainer Ron Spatz, Tom Cannell and Kimberly Sharkey. The Colonel Liam filly made her first three starts on turf, including a runner-up finish to Our Dear Peggy rival Touch of Honor Sept. 5, before battling the length of the stretch to graduate by a nose Oct. 4 going a mile and 70 yards on the all-weather Tapeta course.

“I ran her on the turf the time before she broke her maiden and she didn’t look like a winner. It looked like he had a ton of horse every step of the way and coming to the eighth pole, it looked like she was just kind of going up and down. I was surprised she hung in for second,” Spatz said. “When she ran back on the Tapeta she fought every step of the way and just made it by a nose. They were bobbing heads going down to the wire.

“I was impressed with that race. I don’t know if it was the turf or she just got tired that day. It was only her third [time] out,” he added. “She’s a half to a Grade 1 winner of a million dollars, and it would really mean a lot to her pedigree if she had some black type. She’s got two other half-sisters that have black type, so we’re hoping.”

Completing the field are last-out winners Karolina Pharoah (Post 6, Jonathan Ocasio, 10-1, 122), Philipina A (Post 7, Yolber Torres, 30-1, 120) and Touch of Honor (Post 9, Jesus Rios, 5-1, 122) along with Sucker for Looks (Post 5, Diego Herrera, 5-2, 120) and Life’s Mystery (Post 10, Rasheed Hughes, 9-2, 120).