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 waiti

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