Price Tag has been beaten as favourite at her only two starts, but Sam Freedman has urged punters not to give up on the blueblood filly ahead of her return to racing this Saturday.
The daughter of Zoustar will contest the $250,000 Blue Diamond Fillies Preview, which has been moved to the Sandown Lakeside course with Caulfield out of action due to the grandstand fire earlier this month.
The 1000-metre Group 3 will be Price Tag’s first start away from Flemington, with her two runs to date producing a third placing in the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) and a fourth in the Maribyrnong Plate (1000m), which Freedman expects to be beneficial.
“She was very green, she didn’t know a lot and was running down the straight,” Freedman said of the debut campaign.
“Both times she was wayward, looking for a rail or looking for a bend.
“We’ve noticed she’s been better out of the barriers this preparation, she’s taken a forward position and I think around a bend she’s going to be much more effective.”
Price Tag, who is out of Humma Humma, which makes her a half-sister to the $2.8m Snitzel colt from Magic Millions earlier this month, won a 700m Mornington jumpout on New Year’s Eve before a narrow second placing over 800m on the Caulfield Heath track last Wednesday.
The Preview is the first step in a campaign aimed at the $2 million Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 22.
“She’s a lot stronger, she’s strengthened right up, but she’s carrying good condition, so she’ll improve with every run,” Freedman, who trains in partnership with his father Anthony, said.
“She’ll need a bit of condition to get through the campaign, whether it be the (Blue Diamond) series or whether she goes up to Sydney for the Millennium will just depend on how she goes next week.”
Price Tag was one of 25 entries for the girls’ Preview, and one of four for the Freedmans, who also nominated Bubion, Expulsion and Inkaruna.
Other headline entries includes Merson Cooper Stakes winner Palm Angel, Blue Diamond favourite Cherish Me and the horse she beat in the Geelong Diamond, Cavalry Girl, who won at Flemington last Saturday.
Tentyris is the Freedmans’ only entry in the $250,000 Listed Preview for the colts and geldings, which features Maribyrnong Trial and Maribyrnong Plate placegetter Shining Smile and nine unraced in the possible field of 13.
