Singapore trainer Michael Freedman is confident Super One has made the required improvement to give a Group One race a shake at Flemington on Derby Day.
The Singapore champion two-year-old of last season is set to run in the Coolmore Stud Stakes on Saturday where he will line-up against some of the best sprinting three-year-olds in Australia including Exosphere.
Freedman said Super One had come on following his Australian debut when beaten into second place at Cranbourne on October 11 after arriving from Singapore with an unbeaten record from four starts.
While initially disappointed with Super One’s defeat at Cranbourne, Freedman said there had been extenuating circumstances.
Freedman and jockey Hugh Bowman were both impressed with Super One’s jump-out at Flemington last Friday in preparation for Saturday’s race.
“I think he’s going into the race in pretty good shape,” Freedman said.
“I was disappointed with Cranbourne but with the benefit of hindsight he didn’t have a great preparation going into it.
“He had very restricted work access in quarantine in Singapore and then working on his own he only had two opportunities to gallop at Werribee where he can be a lazy.”
Freedman revealed six of the 16 days Super One spent in quarantine in Singapore was either a public holiday or a weekend and with the government vets not working it meant Super One couldn’t be worked.
Super One has been stabled at Freedman’s older brother Lee’s yard at Flemington since Cranbourne with the younger Freedman keeping an eye on the colt in the past week.
He was taken with the work the three-year-old produced on the synthetic track at Flemington on Tuesday and Freedman is taking extra confidence into the race with Bowman sticking with Super One.
Bowman has been riding in stellar form and last week picked up the Cox Plate, Moonee Valley Cup double.
“He’s been on a few of the opposition three-year-olds over the past couple of months and he’s been pretty happy to stay with my bloke,” Freedman said.
“That gives me some confidence that he’ll run pretty well.”
