Soaring Free

Soaring Free (foaled January 28, 1999 in Ontario) is a retired Canadian Champion Thoroughbred racehorse.

Soaring Free
SireSmart Strike
GrandsireMr. Prospector
DamDancing With Wings
DamsireDanzig
SexGelding
Foaled1999
CountryCanada
ColourDark Bay
BreederSam-Son Farm
OwnerSam-Son Farm
TrainerMark Frostad
Record27: 15-4-0
Earnings$2,110,370[1]
Major wins
Nearctic Stakes (2003)
Play The King Stakes (2003, 2004)
Atto Mile (2004)
Ontario Jockey Club Stakes (2004)
Shakertown Stakes (2004, 2005)
Highlander Stakes (2004, 2005)
Awards
Canadian Champion Sprinter (2003)
Canadian Champion Male Turf Horse (2004)
Canadian Horse of the Year (2004)[2]

Background

Soaring Free was bred and raced by one of Canada's leading Thoroughbred operations, Sam-Son Farm. He was out of the mare Dancing With Wings, a daughter of three-time Champion Sire, Danzig. Soaring Free's sire is the increasingly influential Smart Strike who also sired Eclipse Award winner English Channel and the 2007 American Horse of the Year, Curlin.

A turf specialist who raced from a home base at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, at age four in 2003 Soaring Free won five of eight starts including the Nearctic Stakes plus his first of two Play The King Stakes.

Racing career

In 2004 he won the Grade III Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Kentucky and at Woodbine Racetrack set a North American record of 1:19.38 for 7 furlongs on turf in winning the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes.[3] Soaring Free also won his second straight Play The King Stakes in 2004 as well as the Highlander Stakes. He then earned the most important win of his career in race record time in the Grade I Atto Mile, a race in which he had finished second the previous year.[4] He ended the year, finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Mile, 2ΒΌ lengths behind upset winner Singletary.

Racing at age six in 2005, Soaring Free won his second consecutive Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland Race Course and his second consecutive Highlander Stakes at Woodbine.

References
  1. http://www.pedigreequery.com/soaring+free Soaring Free's pedigree and partial racing stats
  2. http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/racing-news/2004/December/17/Soaring-Free-reigns-as-Canadas-Horse-of-the-Year.aspx December 17, 2004 Thoroughbred Times article on Soaring Free being voted Canada's 2004 Horse of the Year
  3. http://espn.go.com/horse/news/2004/0724/1845887.html July 24, 2004 ESPN report on Soaring Free setting a North American record in the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes
  4. "News". Archived from the original on 2006-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-25. September 20th 2004 article by the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association on Soaring Free winning the Atto Mile
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