Do not oppose Give Me Liberty on Sunday

GIVE ME LIBERTY, a five-year-old gelding with a 4-4-2 record at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, second at Keeneland once and twice as a two-year-old at Oaklawn Park, before running in the Tampa Bay Derby, makes his local debut in Sunday’s Alsafra Trophy as a Mouttet Mile qualifier by invitation.

Owned by Master Gate Connection and taking orders from Rowan R Mathie, GIVE ME LIBERTY raced with the backmarkers in the 2024 Tampa Bay Derby, a grade three event. The five-year-old has competed predominantly at distances a mile and farther, winning four races at Gulfstream Park, the last being May 23 of this year.

GIVE ME LIBERTY, sired by Constitution out of the Scat Daddy mare The Dream, followed up his May win with second, third and fourth-place finishes in June, July, and August, respectively, all optional claiming races, $12,500-$20,000, before being shipped to Jamaica for December’s US$300,000 Mouttet Mile.

On his last outing at Gulfstream Park, GIVE ME LIBERTY pressed even-money favourite LOU THE BODY at a mile in splits of 24.4, 47.3 and 1:11.3 before being eased, finishing fourth behind 1:38.3 on the Tapeta synthetic surface for a US$35,000 purse.

Lining up against overnight allowance runners in the Alsafra at seven and a half furlongs, GIVE ME LIBERTY has looked sharp in the mornings since leaving quarantine, clocking 1:13.4 for six furlongs last Sunday.

MAIN MISTRESS and IMPRESSIVE FORCE, both American five-year-olds, are GIVE ME LIBERTY’s main rivals on paper. However, both having sunk to overnight allowance, neither winning a race in more than a year, virtually hands the event to the Gulfstream Park invader.