Heavily favored Liberation and jockey Juan Hernandez had to work for the filly’s first stakes win, edging 4-1 Cecilia Street and Diego Herrera in the $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes at Los Alamitos on Sunday.
Cecilia Street challenged front-running Liberation first on the far turn, and again after slipping a length behind in mid-stretch, but couldn’t get by the John Sadler-trained daughter of Omaha Beach and Ponytail.
Liberation, who paid $2.60 after winning by a half-length, had finished third in three previous tries at the stakes level and was the only horse with stakes experience in the 1-mile race for California-bred 2-year-old fillies.
Long shot Tiger Lady finished third.
“Around the quarter pole she kind of lost concentration and slowed down a little bit, but I think she was waiting for company,” Hernandez said of Liberation. “Once (Cecilia Street) came to her, I started working on her and she came back and won the race.”
With the two-week Los Alamitos thoroughbred meet already half-over, Kazushi Kimura and Armando Ayuso lead the jockey standings with four wins each. Kimura rode Bob Baffert’s Consequent to victory in Saturday’s $200,000, Grade II Starlet Stakes.
Sadler, Baffert, Steve Knapp and George Papaprodromou are tied atop the trainer standings with two wins.
Related Posts:
- Los Alamitos consensus picks for Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 News The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, December 5, 2025. Trouble viewing on mobile device? See consensus picks Enjoy the consensus horse racing picks online? Subscribe Sign…
- Los Alamitos consensus picks for Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 News The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, December 6, 2024. Trouble viewing on mobile device? See consensus picks Enjoy the consensus horse racing picks online? Subscribe Sign…
- Los Alamitos consensus picks for Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 News The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Sunday, December 7, 2025. Trouble viewing on mobile device? See consensus picks Enjoy the consensus horse racing picks online? Subscribe Sign…
- David James names ‘favourite’ to win Premier League after Man City close gap on Arsenal Sports Former Premier League goalkeeper David James (Picture: Getty) David James has named the ‘favourite’ to win the Premier League after Manchester City closed the gap on title favourites Arsenal. Man City clinched a routine 3-0 win over in-form Sunderland shortly after Arsenal’s deflating 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa. Sunderland have…
- The Audible: One fired, one hired, and … maybe one inducted? News Jim Alexander: I was trying to think of the last overnight sports development as stunning as the one that greeted us Wednesday morning: Chris Paul, who had been brought back by the Clippers as sort of an end-of-career salute, being told that his services were no longer wanted. I thought…
(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)