With his maiden win out of the way, Ducasse returns to the black-type arena at Rosehill and trainer Michael Freedman is anticipating the colt will do so with newfound confidence.
The three-year-old will face a rematch with several of his spring adversaries in Saturday’s Hobartville Stakes (1400m), having earned a recall to Group level with a barnstorming first-up success at Warwick Farm.
It followed a largely luckless spring in which he was competitive in several stakes races despite often having his prospects cruelled by wide draws.
However, Freedman also knows that losing can become a habit, so he was relieved to see Ducasse dust off the cobwebs with his first-up triumph.
“Sometimes it can be a bit habit forming where they keep running nice races without getting the job done,” Freedman said.
“Particularly with colts more so than fillies, it’s important to get them in that winning frame of mind and hopefully he can build a nice platform off that.”
Along with a positive first-up experience, Ducasse has fared well in the barrier draw with gate two.
Freedman says that will give jockey Tommy Berry the option to settle the horse closer in the run if he wants to, while the trainer also expects a 200m distance rise to suit his charge.
Beyond this weekend, Ducasse holds carnival nominations for everything from the Arrowfield Sprint (1200m) to the Rosehill Guineas (2000m), however, based on his third to Chrysaor in the Callander-Presnell (1600m), Freedman figures the horse’s sweet spot will prove somewhere in between.
“From what I saw in the spring, one of his better runs was the last run of his prep where again he had to come from a long way back over a mile and did a great job to go down by a pretty narrow margin,” he said.
“I certainly think anything up to a mile is on the table, whether he can get beyond that remains to be seen.”
Stablemate Moravia wasn’t among the nominations for the Hobartville Stakes after disappointing Freedman with his fourth to Caballus in the Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m).
Freedman said the colt had pulled up well, but he wanted an extra week to tinker with some possible gear changes.
