One of Australia’s most successful racing stables celebrated its repatriation with a winner and a promise of many more to come at Caulfield on Saturday.
Anthony Freedman announced this week he would relocate his family’s racing operation to Flemington where it began its Melbourne existence 30 years ago.
Benenden winning the Wafex Sovereign Plate at Caulfield - photo by Race Horse Photos Australia (Steven Dowden)
And at his first opportunity Freedman marked the move with a city winner when Benenden took out the Sovereign Plate (1400m).
Ridden perfectly by Glen Boss, Benenden ($3.50) scored by three lengths from Precocious Ness ($18).
Vicario ($9) held on for third, a short half-head away, just in front of the disappointing favourite Our Cellar Door.
Freedman’s stable foreman Steve Adams said the entire Freedman business would be moved from its showpiece Markdel complex at Rye on the Mornington Peninsula to the stables formerly filled by Patinack horses at Flemington.
Adams said the move to Sydney of Lee Freedman, the eldest of the brothers who set up one of Melbourne’s most successful stables had left excess capacity at Markdel.
“There’s 100 boxes at Markdel which is about twice as many as we need,” Adams said.
“We’ll have 50 at Flemington which is the number Anthony wants.”
The Freedmans came to Melbourne in the early 1980s after a brief stint at Warwick Farm.
Their success was almost instant with a string of big-race winners, including four Melbourne Cup and four Caulfield Cup successes coming from the Flemington stables and also relocated premises at Caulfield and then from Markdel.
Lee Freedman won seven Melbourne trainers’ premierships between 1996-97 and 2008-09.
One of his successors as champion trainer also made his presence felt at Caulfield when the Peter Moody-prepared Lampedusa won the Carpet Call Handicap (1440m).
The $2.60 favourite scored by 3-1/4 lengths with jockey Luke Nolen declaring he would have been even more impressive if he’d concentrated better.
