The Richard and Will Freedman trained Elettrica claimed the sixth win of her career when she took no prisoners in the Listed Sunshine Coast Cup, surging away over the concluding stages to score by a decisive 2.30 length margin.
The race was also a triumph for young hoop Bailey Wheeler who made the most of the opportunity offered by the Freedman camp and the celebration on the line showed just how much the result meant to Wheeler, whose confidence was already on a high having won earlier on his two previous rides on the card.
Elettrica, a $5,50 chance on the third line of betting, jumped well at the break but the wide barrier draw (number 11) was never going to do her any favours.
Elettrica races away to win for the Freedman stable! ⚡
That’s a treble for Bailey Wheeler 👌@R1CHARDFREEDMAN @willfreedman pic.twitter.com/HJAOcErJrK
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) January 25, 2025
The decision had been taken in a discussion between Will Freedman and Wheeler on race-day morning not to try and cross the pack of horses that were going to be racing to her inside, which would have complicated Elettrica’s task.
Instead, Wheeler took Elettrica back, slipping all of the way back to thirteenth in the fifteen horse field by the time the field had travelled 1400m.
At that stage the $4.60 favourite Party For Two held a clear, two length lead over the $4.80 second favourite Devastate, with Party For Two then all of nine lengths in advance of Elettrica with 1000m left to run, the difference being that Electrica hadn’t spent a penny in the run.
Elettrica did start a forward move in the approach to the home turn, but the six-year-old daughter of Vespa was still well out of her ground, and when she cornered as the widest runner on straightening … all of seven wide, in fact … the Freedman trained runner still had seven lengths to make up.
In the early part of the straight Lost In Transit ($9), who had cut the corner, joined Devastate in the immediate chase behind Party For Two.
Lost in Transit got to Party For Two with 150m left to run (Devastate had dropped off at that stage), but only a couple of strides later Lost In Transit was put back in second place by the extraordinary finishing effort of Elettrica, who Wheeler had wound up from the 350m.
From there, Elettrica’s rate of acceleration decimated any aspirations of all of her rivals. From being in thirteenth place at the 400m … to fourth at the 200m … and into the lead inside the 150m (with Wheeler having to switch the whip from his left to his right hand as Elettrica wanted to hang in) … and on to victory by over two lengths, tells the story of just how quickly Elettrica descended on the opposition and how emphatic her victory was.
This result saw Elettrica improved her race record to six wins and fourteen minor placing from thirty-six starts with her Sunshine Coast Cup victory taking her prize-money haul to $528,317.
