Trainers Richard and Will Freedman almost gave up on Rolling Magic after an unflattering start to his career, but they were happy to have stuck solid after he surprised them with a winning return.
The rising five-year-old didn’t set the world on fire at his first two preparations but managed to raise the bar last spring when he strung together a trio of provincial victories and snared a placing in the $500,000 Four Pillars in November.
“After his first prep, he was only a stone’s throw away from the Inglis Digital Sale,” Will Freedman said.
“We tipped him out for five months and he has come back a fifty times better horse than what he was.
“As soon as you threaten the box door, they put in a good one.”
A foot abscess interrupted his subsequent preparation, and when he appeared to struggle in two recent barrier trials, Will Freedman admitted he wasn’t confident the horse had come back in top shape.
He told Rolling Magic’s ($7) owners as much but was pleased to be proven wrong as the gelding wore down leader Khumbila ($8.50) to take out Saturday’s Midway Handicap (1300m) at Rosehill by a half-neck.
“I probably got it wrong because I told, not only the press, but the owners it was quite unlikely he’d win,” Freedman said.
“He is getting closer to where he was when he had a good run of form. He has always looked really well, he just hasn’t been able to finish off his trials that well and some horses just don’t trial that well.
“There is certainly a lot of improvement left in him.
“If he didn’t win today, we were going to have another crack at the Four Pillars but that probably gets thrown out the window with the ratings points.”
Freedman is hoping Rolling Magic can instead continue to progress through the grades and winning rider Josh Parr has no doubt he is open to more improvement.
“His coat is quite woolly and he was really fresh pre-race in the mounting yard and even in the barrier,” Parr said.
“I think there is good improvement to come but thankfully he has got the job done today.”
