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As part of their 3YO campaign for Golden Slipper winning, Stay Inside, trainer Michael Freedman has included ambitions for an Everest Cup tilt. Speaking to Everest Diaries, Freedman explains why Stay Inside has the greatest chance of winning The Everest and his pet peeves and favourites from the racing industry he grew up in.
Q: With Stay Inside on the Everest track, please tell us about how you see his journey panning out over the next few months as you head towards the Everest Cup?
A: Stay inside has returned to training after a good 7-week spell…he looks terrific. He will likely start back racing in late August and hopefully, if his early form is good enough, he will head towards The Everest on October 16.
Q: What makes Stay Inside a perfect Everest contender? Are you even a tiny bit concerned with the Golden Slipper curse?
A: Stay Inside has the right racing style for Everest as he can travel any position in a race, and he has good acceleration. He handles soft track conditions too which is often the conditions herein Sydney at that time of year.
Q: Please tell us about how he is doing these days?
A: He is doing well in training at present. He has been galloping for the past 2 weeks and will have his first barrier trial back on the 27th of July.
Q: Please tell us about your journey with Stay Inside and where do you see him going in the next few years?
A: I purchased Stay Inside for A$200,000 at the 2019 Magic Millions yearling Sales. I didn’t have any specific owners for him at that stage, so I then went about syndicating him amongst some existing stable clients and some new owners too.
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Q: What do you like about his sire Extreme Choice?
A: Extreme Choice has done an incredible job in his first year particularly given he has had limited racing numbers due to subfertility problems. His progeny seems to be very tough types of horses with really good temperaments which I believe is a big factor for any young racehorse.
Q: What's kept you in the game since getting involved?
A: I’ve been involved with racehorses since I was 12 or 13 years old and I think it's simply the love of the horse which has kept me involved since then.
Q: Coming from a racing family, you have been surrounded by horses all your life, what is your earliest racing memory?
A: My earliest racing memory was going to the local racetracks with my father around where I grew up in country NSW. He was a bit of a hobby trainer and used to take me along to trackwork and race meetings.
Q: Which is your favourite racehorse and racecourse of all time? Why?
A: My favourite racehorse of all time is a champion we trained many years ago named Mahogany. I looked after him from when he was a yearling, and he was incredibly versatile. He was able to win 2 Derbies over 2400m as a 3yo then as an older horse he won a big Group 1 sprint over 1000m!! You don’t see that these days.
Q: What was your favourite yearling purchase this year?
A: It’s a bit too soon to be picking favourite yearlings from this year but I quite like a Pierro colt I bought at this year’s Easter Yearling Sales.
Q: Who do you think is a rising star within the industry?
A: I think Jamie Kah the Victorian-based jockey is the most obvious rising star in Australian racing.
Q: If you were an Everest slot holder, who would you pick?
A: If I had a slot in The Everest I would pick Stay Inside….terribly biased but so what!!
Q: What positive change would you like to see in the industry? And what do you hate the most about being a trainer?
A: The thing I hate the most in our industry is the crazy hours. There is absolutely no need for trackwork hours to commence at 4 am in the morning and the main reason it does is because it has always been that way. In this day and age, we should be amending hours to be more user friendly to staff etc and hopefully attract more younger people to get involved which sadly is declining at present.
Q: What TV series are you currently enjoying watching?
A: I’ve just finished watching Clarkson’s Farm. Very funny man with similar farming skills to myself!!