An early Christmas present arrived on Sunday December 12 at Bendigo, where Mitch Freedman trained a double on the exciting nine-race card.
Hot off some impressive jump outs which caught the eye of tipsters, Perseids returned to the track in dazzling fashion, impressively putting away his rivals in a matter of strides over 1100 metres. Perseids won on debut at the beginning of 2021 and returned to the races in June, before failing at Geelong on a wet track. With full faith in the horse, Freedman opted to “hit reset” and give the 4yo gelding an extended break in the paddock to avoid the winter and allow him time to develop. Freedman’s masterstroke and faith has certainly paid dividends, as Perseids ran away to a comfortable 1.25 length victory, marking his second victory from only three starts.
Moral Force was sent out the red hot favourite in the last race and delivered to market expectations, producing an outstanding performance when sitting three-wide the trip over 1400m. After some barrier mishaps early in Moral Force’s career, Freedman sent the gelding to trainer and barrier expert Dane Smith to refresh his skills and ensure that he was both confident and safe moving forward. Smith’s craft has been a crucial piece of Moral Force’s return to the winner’s stall. Moral Force has continually improved each start this preparation in strong form races, having a third and second placing before breaking through for a victory.
Jordan Childs continued his fantastic association with the stable partnering both horses to victory. A delighted Childs post-race was complimentary of the Freedman team and the manner in which the horses were presented, fit and ready to run at their peak.
Since the beginning of November, Freedman has had 23 runners returning four winners and a further ten placings, highlighting the stable is ‘knocking on the door’ and running at a promising strike-rate. An exciting summer period looms ahead with some progressive horses returning to the races and some promising un-raced horses set to kick-off their careers. Let’s hope the trend of place-getters transfers to plenty of winners for the team.
