Trainer Mitchell Freedman hopes the debut win of Farmelia at Caulfield Heath will be the precursor to a Group 1 win in Brisbane.
Farmelia stepped out for the first time in the Sportsbet Fastform Plate (1000m) on Wednesday and was well supported in landing a narrow victory.
Ridden by Dean Yendall ,Farmelia ($3.30) scored by a short-neck from Tennessee Spirit ($4.20) with Big Boy Bowie ($11) a further three-quarters-of-a-length away third.
Freedman said Farmelia, a Melbourne Premier Sale purchase for $140,000 as a yearling, had been ‘flighty’ and taken a lot of work to get her to the track.
“The way she came to the races today, she handled herself really well,” Freedman said.
“She did a few things wrong in the race, but she’s open to plenty of improvement.
“We don’t get too involved in testing them too early and I do a fair bit of riding myself.
“That way, I can get a bit of a feel of where they are at early and then all that we try and do is condition their bone and condition them up fitness wise.
“She’s been ticking all the boxes along the way, and we leave it pretty open through the preparation.
“We don’t have end goals when they’re this age and she just kept putting her hand up and for that reason she’s been able to get to the races.”
Freedman said he would see how Farmelia recovers from her first outing before deciding where he may head with the filly.
But the trainer said he would not be aiming too high in the immediate future.
“I’ll see how she pulls up, but she handled the soft ground well enough and there’s plenty of good two-year-old races coming up for her,” Freedman said.
“We’re not into rushing them and we want them to race for a long time and make sure they’re ready for their preparations later on.”
Freedman can now turn his attention to Skybird who runs in the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
The soft track in Brisbane was welcome news for Freedman who wants to see the rain continue.
“Hopefully the rain is falling there today and tomorrow,” Freedman said.
“She’s drawn a middle gate which is better than the outside gate.”The 1300 metres is a bit of a test, but she is going very well.
