Freedman confident rising colts can defy wide barriers
Trainer Michael Freedman is optimistic emerging three-year-olds Moravia (Snitzel) and Ducasse (Trapeze Artist) can overcome bad barriers and fly the flag for his Winkurra Colts syndicate at Rosehill today, en route to potential stallion-making engagements later in the spring.
Moravia, an $800,000 Magic Millions buy from Edinburgh Park out of dual stakes winner Our Crown Mistress (Star Witness), will have his third start in the Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m), his final lead-up to the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) in a fortnight.
Ducasse, a Segenhoe-bred son of Listed winner Custard (Lonhro) bought for $280,000 at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, takes his next step along a possible Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) path in the Ming Dynasty Quality (Gr 3, 1400m).
With Tyler Schiller to ride both colts, the barrier gods have not been kind to Freedman and Winkurra, whose first crop of purchases since their formation are now three.
Moravia, who rose from a debut Newcastle maiden win over 900 metres to an eye-catching second in Libertad’s (Russian Revolution) San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), will spring from the outside gate in a field that stood at ten after two notable scratchings last night.
And Ducasse, who resumed with an unlucky fourth in Tom Kitten’s (Harry Angel) Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m), has a far tougher outside marble to contend with – 17th barrier out of 17 – in the Ming Dynasty.
Still, Freedman said the pair had progressed strongly since their last runs and he was confident they could at least continue on an upward trajectory, on another engrossing day of second-season action as a host of colt owners hope to see prospective stallions emerge.
Run To The Rose betting is headed by Godolphin colt Cylinder (Exceed And Excel), who despite only a slender win over just six rivals at $1.50 last start in Caulfield’s Vain Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), was again in the red last night.
Libertad, the Trilogy Racing colt bred by Rheinwood Pastoral who’s attempting a fourth win from as many starts, was at $4.60. Newgate-China Horse Club’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up Don Corleone (Extreme Choice) resumes after two barrier trials as an $8.50 hope, while Moravia was at $12 and James Harron colt Butch Cassidy (Written Tycoon) – an impressive third in the San Domenico – was at $14.
The Coolmore-Chris Waller camp were responsible for the two scratchings, who happen to also be the two top-priced lots from Inglis Easter last year.
Sunlight’s $3 million full brother Kandinsky Abstract (Zoustar) was withdrawn, after originally plucking gate nine. Connections said he’d likely run in next week’s Poseidon Stakes (Listed, 1100m) as a familiariser for the Flemington straight ahead of the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on Derby Day.
And $2.25 million colt Congregation (Snitzel), winner of his first two at Canterbury and Rosehill in the winter before an eighth in Eagle Farm’s JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m), was taken out after drawing the outside barrier to run in the longer Ming Dynasty. There, he’ll jump from gate 11 as he embarks on a Caulfield Guineas path.
The Run To The Rose also features the return of Newgate-China Horse Club’s ATC Sires-Champagne Stakes double winner Militarize (Dundeel), who was a $19 hope last night as he starts a campaign aimed at longer targets such as the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Godolphin also has the likely favourite in the Ming Dynasty, with Tom Kitten topping the market following his ominous Up And Coming win at around $3.70, just ahead of the horse he beat into third that day, the Gary Portelli-trained Encap (Capitalist). The latter’s stablemate, Laurel Oak Bloodstock’s Kintyre (Hallowed Crown), second in the Up And Coming, was around $11 after taking the second-widest barrier.
Freedman is the manager of the Winkurra group, which also comprises prominent US-based bloodstock agent Michael Wallace and some five other associates. Fifteen three-year-olds race under the colt syndicate’s banner out of Freedman’s stable, with more as-yet unnamed two-year-olds on the way.
Winkurra occupies a perhaps more economical rung on the colts syndicates’ pecking order than others such as Coolmore and Harron, although price is of course not the most reliable guide to quality. In any case, the new group did fight hard to attain Moravia for $800,000, and appears to have struck gold.
“We’re of course looking to find a colt or two that might develop into something, hopefully a commercial stallion prospect, like a few other syndicates,” Freedman told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Moravia was a lovely yearling, by a champion stallion and with a good pedigree on the dam side. With that sort of horse these days, when they do present as good types, that’s the kind of money you’ve got to pay for them.
“It’s nice to get two quality colts in Moravia and Ducasse. It’s a shame we haven’t got the barriers to give them every chance tomorrow, but there’s no use worrying about stuff we can’t change.”
Moravia, who carries the silks of Brisbane-based syndicator the Osher Group, didn’t debut until August 10 when he took his Newcastle three-year-old maiden by two lengths, ahead of Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) runner-up Perfect Proposal (Russian Revolution).
“I thought he then did a great job to go down by a narrow margin in the San Domenico. To go to that sort of level off a Newcastle maiden isn’t easy to do,” Freedman said.
“He was a bit slow maturing mentally and physically. His bottom half didn’t grow as quickly as his top half, and he went shin sore a few times and we had to be patient. But hopefully from here on that will continue to pay dividends and he can continue to progress.
“He’s shown he’s up to this class. We’ll have to go either back or forward from the wide gate. There’s no point trying to be too cute, but at least he’s got reasonably good gate speed.”
In a race possibly short of pace, Don Corleone resumes – after a length win in a 1000-metre Rosehill trial – aiming to finally claim a Group 1 in the Golden Rose after a two-year-old campaign which was once impressive and agonising. His barnstorming debut win at Randwick on January 21 put him among the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) favourites, before an underwhelming fourth at $1.60 at the same course.
The colt was then easy in betting but atoned with a surging second in the Blue Diamond, before a fourth in the Slipper and second in the Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), comfortably beaten by Militarize. He rounded off with a sixth over the mile of the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
“I wouldn’t say it was frustrating – he just wasn’t good enough,” said co-trainer Peter Snowden. “All his runs were good. He ran to his best, that’s all we can ask, but came up a bit short.
“But he’s older and stronger now, and hopefully he’ll be good enough to break through now as a three-year-old.
“He’s pretty well wound up, so I’d like to see him finish in the first three tomorrow. If he can do that, he should be very competitive in the Golden Rose. The Caulfield Guineas is also there, but I think the mile of the Champagne stretched him last time. He might get away with it at Listed level, but I’m not sure about at Group 1 level. The Golden Rose will tell us more about that picture.”
In any event, Snowden rates Slipper third-placegetter King’s Gambit (I Am Invincible) as “definitely the best of my three-year-olds”, adding that colt was likely headed for the Poseidon and a first-up meeting with another colt on a Coolmore Stud Stakes path, Kandinsky Abstract.
“We’re going to wait,” Waller said on social media of today’s scratching of Kandinsky Abstract. “I think he’ll go to Melbourne – 1100 metres up the straight; it gives him a bit of experience up the straight.”
Waller said Congregation still had a “tricky gate” in the Ming Dynasty, but “he needs to run, and needs to get started”.
“He’s come back well. He was a late bloomer in the autumn (but) he’s a Caulfield Guineas horse,” he said.
Ducasse could also be bound for that particular stallion-maker, though Freedman said the Golden Rose might spring into mind “if he jumps out of the ground” from his ugly barrier today.
Freedman said Ducasse was “stiff on debut” when third at Rosehill, “had a torrid run” when a one-and-three-quarter-length seventh in Doomben’s Champagne Classic (Gr 2, 1200m), and “didn’t get much room” when fourth in the Up And Coming.
“He’s a quality colt. If he can put his hand up he might be a potential Caulfield Guineas horse,” Freedman said of the son of Trapeze Artist (Snitzel), the Widden stallion who, while fifth among first–season sires last season, still awaits a first stakes winner.
“Even though Trapeze Artist was a sprinter, some of the progeny I’ve had anything to do with are giving indications of potentially getting out over further, which is good because it gives you a few more options.”