It was a big days racing at Ballarat on Sunday as we saddled up eight runners between the hurdles, steeples and flat races.
With the jumpers acquitting themselves well on the turf, it was I’m Airborne and Freddy The Eagle who featured in the winners stall on the synthetic track.
I’m Airborne (pictured) broke his maiden status at start number four, backing up his great first up run the start prior. Aaron Kuru took bad luck out of the equation and went straight to the front on the short priced favourite. He bowled along at a leisurely tempo, leading into the home turn you could see he was travelling well. He extended nicely and put a gap on the rest of field. Stable mate, Bargino was closing late but I’m Airborne went on to win by 1.25 lengths. It was a great win for the large ownership group of Toward Reward Thoroughbreds. They secured this gelding at the 2022 Inglis Premier sale for just $35k.
Freddy The Eagle was sent to us by his ownership group from Darwin as they identified him as a stayer and potential jumping proposition. He came to us well educated in the jumping caper and it has been great to get a win on the flat on his way towards a jumps campaign. The question mark on him was would he stay? Yesterday at Ballarat, he put all those doubts to bed with an all the win over the 2100m. Linda Meech took him straight to the front and they rolled along at a nice gallop. The second horse dropped off quickly which left Freddy The Eagle in front on his own. For a horse having his 29th race start he still has a good think about the job at hand. Once he was left in front, he floated and thought his job was done. Given a reminder or two by Linda, he galloped through the line extending to win by 3.75 lengths. It has been great to get a win so early in the preparation as we prepare Freddy The Eagle for a hurdling debut.
Congratulations to all our winning connections.
