Ballarat trainer Mitch Freedman celebrated a milestone moment in his career at his home track of Ballarat on Tuesday.
Sontay’s win in the opening event on the Ballarat Synthetic fixture gave Freedman his 300th winner of his training career, almost 11 years after Contact gave him his very first success at Geelong.
“It’s been a bit of time in the making but it’s good to tick off that milestone and hopefully, there’s a few more along the way,” Freedman said.
Freedman has enjoyed his best season to date in 2023/24.
At the time of writing, he’s trained 42 winners, while in the spring he celebrated his first Group 1 triumph when Attrition landed the Toorak Handicap at Caulfield.
“There have been many highlights along the way,” Freedman reflected.
“Watching some of your staff grow and develop into their roles and just winning races with horses in general has been a highlight.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re winning a nice race with a nice horse or you’re winning an average race with an average horse, it always gives you a thrill and you always work hard with each one to get the best out of them.”
Despite his current form, Freedman admitted that the road to 300 winners hasn’t always been an easy one.
“Plenty of ups and downs, plenty of learnings, just trying to refine your craft and improve all the time, that’s what the journey has been,” he said.
As he looks ahead to the future, Freedman believes that his business at Ballarat is in a good position to build upon the foundations that he’s laid over the past decade.
“At the moment, we’ve probably got the strongest numbers we’ve had, we’re getting some good support by some bigger clients,” he said.
“Hopefully, we just continue to build the winners and get some more stakes winners along the way.”
