Promising two-year-old Luna Rocks has given father and son training partners Richard and Will Freedman their first Sydney metropolitan success.
The pair only joined forces at the start of the month and have hit the ground running, with city winners in Melbourne (Juan Diva), Brisbane (On The Lead ) and now Sydney.
Luna Rocks, a half-sister to 2021 Magic Millions Classic winner Shaquero, led and was claimed in the final bounds when runner-up on debut at Newcastle and the Freedmans thought highly enough of her to accept for a two-year-old race at Randwick last Saturday.
However, she was scratched after drawing poorly and it proved a deft move with the filly redirected to Wednesday’s TAB Handicap (1100m) at Warwick Farm where she comfortably accounted for her rivals in the heavy 10 conditions.
“She’s got some talent this filly,” Richard Freedman said.
“She’s a bit wayward, a bit green. She’s got to learn a lot but she has got a lot of natural speed.
“She had had a run on that ground before, a lot of those horses hadn’t had a run on that sort of ground and I think that helped her as well.”
Freedman said Luna Rocks could have one more start but would be a better horse in the spring.
John Thompson unveiled a promising galloper in the opening race in Excelladus, who broke his maiden at his first start as a gelding.
The three-year-old is from a family well known to his trainer being by form sire So You Think out of Group 1 winner Russeting, who were both trained by Thompson’s former boss and mentor Bart Cummings.
“Lovely horse. I’ve had a big opinion of him for a long time,” Thompson said.
“He showed good promise last time in as a colt, just doing a few things wrong.
“He has been gelded and it has been a bit of a plan to try to win with him first-up because we had an opinion of him.”
Excelladus started a $2.90 favourite and scored by 3-3/4 lengths over Oxford Vision ($4.60), who tried hard but was no match for the winner, with Citric ($13) another two lengths away third.
