Tijuana Racing Stables and Juan Pablo Silva, owners and trainer of Free to Run, couldn’t have been upset when they found out there were four scratches from yesterday’s fifth race at Mountaineer Casino & Resort, leaving their filly with just two opponents in the five-furlong race. 

    When the trio broke from the gate, Red Rocket Girl was sitting at even money on the tote board, Myrrh was 3/2, and Free to Run 9/5. Free to Run, a 4-year-old by Bahamian Squall, immediately dropped back to third, and the other two opened up by about six lengths. But jockey Ricardo Barrios never blinked, and when he got into Free to Run turning for home, she closed like a rocket in the last sixteenth and crossed under the wire on even terms with Red Rockets Girl, with Myrrh another half-length back.

    A perplexed announcer Peter Berry couldn’t separate the two, and entertained his audience with the following: “Oh, I don’t know . . . Maybe . . . No, I’m not going to say it . . . OK, I will say it . . . Maybe No. 4 Free to Run . . . I’m glad I didn’t because Free to Run is the winner.”

    The filly bred by Peggy T. Follin and sold for $7,000 at the 2020 OBS October sale paid $5.80, while raising her record to 2-6-4 in 17 starts and her earnings to $32,357. In her previous five races she had registered four seconds and a third. With her connections taking advantage of short fields and more money opportunities, in less than five months she has started 12 times.