Michael Freedman has a few options with talented three-year-old gelding Ninja that could hopefully lead to a trip to the Gold Coast.
Having won two of three starts, including an 11-length romp to break his maiden at Kembla Grange before a gritty win in benchmark 72 company, Freedman will assess options in Sydney and Queensland this Saturday.
Ninja is nominated for another benchmark 72 at Rosehill while also a possibility to run at Doomben in the Pierata Plate, a set weights race for three-year-olds, with the decision ultimately to be made after acceptances.
Both races are over 1200m and have a total purse of $160,000.
“I just want to see the acceptances tomorrow first, so I’m not really sure,” Freedman said.
“Either up there or here, it’ll just depend on fields and barriers.”
Having raced exclusively on wet tracks to date, Ninja won his latest trial at Randwick over 1050m on good ground, with Freedman hoping he can make that next step to stakes company.
“I’ve seen enough of him on dry tracks. His trials this time back have both been on pretty firm ground, he seems pretty adept on all conditions,” Freedman said.
“We’ll sort of put him on a pathway perhaps towards a Magic Millions Guineas.
“See how he comes up, but that’s sort of been a bit of a long-term program for him.”
With temperatures expected to approach 40 degrees on Saturday in Sydney, races may even be delayed until Sunday with Racing NSW monitoring conditions.
“Should the current forecast remain in place (partly cloudy, 41 deg) it is likely the meeting will be pushed back a day and run Sunday,” a statement on X said.
Ideally, Freedman would like to target the $3 million Magic Millions 3yo Guineas third-up, with Saturday’s run to determine the path he takes with Ninja.
“If you went up there and raced Saturday, you may stay on and then run in a Vo Rogue (Plate) or something,” Freedman noted.
“Second up and then a fortnight into the Magic Millions, that’s the type of program we’ll be having a look at.
“But if we drew poorly in both on the weekend, then we’ve obviously got the option of waiting and going to Wyong next week in that three-and four-year-old race.”
