Lee Freedman’s powers of persuasion have already garnered a Group Two win for Hazard who will aim to take it a step higher in the Tattersall’s Tiara.
Freedman, who trains the mare in partnership with his brother Anthony, asked Godolphin’s Henry Plumptre to delay her retirement after she won a Group Three race in Adelaide last month.
She subsequently claimed her biggest win in the Dane Ripper Stakes at Doomben to earn her chance in the final Group One race of the season at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
“Henry wanted to retire her after her win in the Proud Miss in Adelaide,” Freedman said.
“I convinced him to let me take her up to Queensland and now she’s a Group Two winner.”
Freedman said Hazard had thrived in Queensland and his travelling foreman Will Stewart reported the mare had improved further following her Dane Ripper victory.
“Whether she’s up to the Group One company I’m not sure,” Freedman said.
“But she’s in great form and deserves her shot at it.”
Freedman said over his years of travelling horses north to Brisbane he has always found they improve a couple lengths in the warmer weather.
It has worked for Hazard, the winner of 10 of her 25 starts and more than half a million dollars.
With James McDonald, who scored on the mare at Doomben, riding for Godolphin in England, Ben Melham, who has won two races on Hazard will be back aboard on Saturday.
Real Surreal, the winner of Saturday’s Listed Gai Waterhouse at Ipswich will back up in the Tatt’s Tiara with the field headed by recent Stradbroke Handicap winner Srikandi.
