Florida Focus

length short of Yes I Am Free in a time of :55.71. Shekky Shebaz was third as Belgrano and County Final completed the order of finish.

Trained by Laura Cazares, Yes I Am Free paid $8.60 to win.

A late bloomer who won his first stake last year in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint as a 6-year-old, Yes I Am Free was claimed by Cazares for $62,500 in April of 2021 at the Hallandale Beach track. Two races later, he was third behind winning Florida-bred Warrior’s Pride in the $100,000 Turf Sprint at Gulfstream in July 2021. A fourth-place finish in an overnight handicap on the Gulfstream synthetic course completed his campaign that year before he came back to win last year’s Gulfstream Turf Sprint. He then won the $100,000 Silks Run before finishing off the board in both the $106,000 Get Serious won by The Critical Way at Monmouth Park in May and in the $100,000 Bob Umphrey won by Chasing Artie in July.

He was then given nearly seven months off before returning to win a second level, $62,500 optional claiming going five furlongs on the turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 19 just prior to winning his second Gulfstream Turf Sprint.

“His last race as a very tough race and we were very worried,” Cazares said. “He hadn’t run in a while and we knew he was going to need a race off the layoff. But he fought the entire way. He was not giving up. He showed a lot of heart.”

Yes I Am Free is by Uncaptured out of Yes It’s Valid, by Yes It’s True and has now won 11 of 25 career starts with two seconds and three thirds while earning $553,994. Yes It’s Valid has four winners from five starters with Yes I Am Free as her only earner of black type. She has an unraced 3-year-old full-brother to Yes I Am Free in Hits Different and an unnamed 2-year-old colt by Ocala Stud stallion Awesome Slew. She was bred to Pleasant Acres Stallions resident Gunnevera in 2022 and to Girvin in 2023.

“It feels amazing because I hadn’t won a Grade 3 race before, I didn’t really win any stakes race before, so this guy has done a lot for me and [the owners]. It’s their first horse and look what he’s done for them. He’s done a lot for all of us,” Cazares said. “All the horses do a lot for all of us but this guy has done the biggest so far. It’s great.”

One Identity Becomes a Stakes Winner in Ladies Turf Sprint

Lawson Racing Stables’ One Identity, in her fourth race off the claim and second straight on the grass, got a well-timed ride from jockey Paco Lopez to become a stakes winner for the first time with a half-length triumph over Charlie T in the $100,000 Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 11.

Trained by Rohan Crichton, Florida-bred One Identity covered five furlongs in :55.92 over a firm turf course in the Ladies Turf Sprint for fillies and mares, 4-years-old and older.

One Identity paid $8.20 to win.

Claimed for $35,000 last summer at Gulfstream, One Identity was exiting a third-place effort in a second level, $62,500 optional claiming sprinting five furlongs Jan. 18 at Gulfstream in her turf debut, beaten less than two lengths by winner Train to Artemus. That race snapped a two-race win streak for One Identity, both victories having come over Gulfstream’s all-weather surface.

“When she ran the last time, Paco admitted they went too fast and he wanted to relax her a little bit more so that’s what he did,” Crichton said. “It played out well for us.”

Lopez settled One Identity in fourth while saving ground as long shot Florida-bred War of Ages blazed through an opening quarter-mile in :21.42 while pressed from her outside by Charlie T. Lopez waited patiently for room that came when the field straightened for home, splitting War of Ages and Charlie T at the top of the stretch and outrunning a determined Charlie T to the wire.

Mamba Wamba, sent off as the 2-1 betting favorite, finished third followed by Imagery, Stony Point, Moor Strength and War of Ages. Miss J McKay and Spun Glass were scratched. “Paco sat and got a good trip. He decided to go inside,” Crichton said. “He gave up the garden spot outside, but the rail opened up and she got through.”

Bred in Florida by Laurie Plesa, David Melin and Leon Ellman, One Identity has won three of seven starts before being claimed and was second to fellow Florida-bred Spirit Wind in the $100,000 Any Limit sprinting six furlongs on the dirt last winter at Gulfstream. She has now won three of four starts for Crichton, who said he had not looked beyond the Ladies Turf

Sprint for One Identity.

“One dream at a time,” he said. “She’s gotten better and better, for sure.”

For her career, One Identity, a daughter of Exchange Identity, by Leriodesanimaux (Brz), has six wins in 11 starts with one second and two thirds while banking $234,460. n

Dorth Vader Strikes With Big Upset in Davona Dale

John Ropes’ homebred Dorth Vader wore down even-money favorite Red Carpet Ready inside the final furlong and won the Grade 2 Davona Dale presented by FanDuel TV at odds of 46-1 on March 4, earning a possible trip to the Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5.

With jockey Miguel Vasquez aboard, the Florida-bred daughter of Girvin out of Hardcore Candy, by Yonaguska won by four-and-three-quarters lengths ahead of a late-running Guns n’ Graces in second with Red Carpet Ready hanging on for third. The Davona Dale offered a purse of $200,000 to the eight 3-year-old fillies who went a mile around one turn.

Guns n’ Graces earned 20 Oaks points for finishing second while Red Carpet Ready picked up 15 points for finishing third. Fourth-place finisher Infinite Diamond earned 10 points while Florida-bred Lynx was awarded five points for finishing fifth. They were followed, in order, by Positano Sunset, Undervalued Asset and Leave No Trace.

Dorth Vader started well from post nine in the Davona Dale as Infinite Diamond and Red Carpet Ready broke best of all from the two inside posts. But Leave No Trace and jockey Tyler Gaffalione sprinted to the front from the outside post to lead Red Carpet Ready by a head as they finished the first two furlongs in :23.01. Down the backstretch, Dorth Vader chased while racing in fourth but began to edge closer to Red Carpet Ready approaching the far turn.

“I was thrilled down the backside,” trainer Michael Yates said of Dorth Vader’s position after the trainer won his first graded stakes. “I was worried when [Tyler Gaffalione] was lapped outside of [Dorth Vader] that they were going to be able to pinch her back. But as soon as I saw her ease through the hole, I felt really good.”

Red Carpet Ready finished the half-mile in :45.06 and tried to shake free from Dorth Vader with Undervalued Asset another length-and-a-half farther back in third. But Dorth Vader continued to make up ground in the turn and was on even terms to the outside of Red Carpet Ready when they hit the top of the stretch after three-quarters in 1:10.02.

Dorth Vader and Red Carpet Ready fought it out until they passed the eighth-pole when the former drew clear to win in 1:37.23 on the fast track.

“[Yates] told me to put her among the leaders in the pace from the start, so I gave her a long warm-up to get her interested from the beginning,” Vasquez said. “I didn’t have to use her much even though the pace was strong. I am really grateful.”

Dorth Vader paid $95.40 to win and is the first Florida-bred winner of the Davona Dale since Yara in 2012, who won at odds of 64-1.

“I was confident in her,” Yates said. “I thought she would run a really big race because of the way she had trained. I kind of drew a line through the Tampa race. That’s happened to me more than once. It rained really hard the day before and it was kind of a heavy track, so we just drew a line through it.”

In her most recent start before the Davona Dale, Dorth Vader was sixth, beaten nearly 12 lengths by winner Opus Forty Two in the $50,000 Gasparilla going seven furlongs at Tampa on Jan. 14.

“[The first graded stakes victory] is a great feeling,” Yates said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, to be honest with you.”

Dorth Vader, who won the $75,000 Juvenile Sprint against fellow Florida-breds at Gulfstream in October and the $100,000 Sandpiper at six furlongs at Tampa Bay Downs on Dec. 3, earned her third career stakes and first graded stakes with the Davona Dale score.

Dorth Vader was also third to Atomically and Lynx in last summer’s $400,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes My Dear Girl. Atomically scratched from the Davona Dale while Lynx finished fifth.

Although Dorth Vader won the Davona Dale at long odds, Yates said they will consider the Kentucky Oaks.