They had to wait an extra four days to get The Bat Out Of Hell notch on their belt after the race was washed out at the Gold Coast on Saturday, but everything worked out well in the end for the Lee Freedman stable and Flag Hall, a strapping chestnut who came home in confident fashion under a well-judged ride by Melbourne Cup winning jockey Robbie Dolan at the Ipswich meeting today.
Talk about being well placed … Flag Hall carried 52kg here, no less than 10kg less than the 62kg he carried in his previous start.
Seven scratchings reduced the field to eight runners with Flag Hall coming In on the third line of betting at $6, which would prove to be generous odds as Flag Hall, who had to keep working all the way to the line, ultimately asserted his authority when it mattered most.
🦇 The Bat Out Of Hell at @IpswichTurfClub belongs to Flag Hall for @ZRKD and @freedman_lee! 👏@RaceQLD pic.twitter.com/JqHCPvkLM2
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 14, 2025
Flag Hall lengthened his stride and moved up to join issue with Holy Racket ($12) at the head of affairs at the 200m mark, before taking the measure of Holy Racket inside the final 75m and then staying on strongly enough to hold Holy Racket and keep the threat of the $4.40 second favourite Nettuno back in third place.
The betting companies $2.50 race favourite Wanda Rox finished fourth, a length off the winner.
“Lee (Freedman) will be delighted,” said Robbie Dolan post-race.
“He rang me this morning. We just wanted to take a sit in behind the hot speed. Next thing there was no hot speed … so we were a little bit out of control for a furlong, but, when I got him out inti the clear, he is too good a horse to have 52kg.
“He has got a really good sort of sit and sprint which Michale Rodd (who rode Flag Hall in his previous start) told me about. The way they backed off the race, he was going to sprint better than the rest of them.
“He quickened up really well … could have won by a bit more.
“That was my first time riding him. He was very impressive today. He is a beautiful horse and that was a good win.”
