On Saturday, Freedom to Dream runs in a major race at the Dublin Racing Festival for the second consecutive year. Actually, ‘major race’ and the DRF is a tautology; every race is major. Just look at the third race of the day, the Irish Arkle. This is hands down the best novice chase for years. Willie Mullins has decided that, instead of racing his five horses against each other at home, he will take them to the races and let three other horses join in for fun. One of his five is my absolute favourite horse in training (well, except for my two): Appreciate It. I will not hear a bad word about this horse, and I can’t wait to see him take on these younger horses and put them in their place (hopefully)
You may recall that Freedom to Dream finished second to Appreciate It in his second race; a Christmas Bumper at Leopardstown. Both horses have had their training issues subsequently, but it would be cool to see them both perform at their peak on Saturday.
We are giving the ride to Michael O’Sullivan on Saturday. He is young and is great value for the 5 pound allowance he is able to claim. In fact, he has already been used to ride in (and win) a Grade 1 race when he wasn’t allowed to claim; that’s how highly he’s respected. On Saturday as he prepares to ride Freedom to Dream in Race 5, he has also been booked to ride the favourite in the first race; another Grade 1. It is testament to his excitement to be riding Freedom to Dream that he has chosen a Grade 1 as a ‘sighter’ to get his ‘eye in’ and get used to the ground conditions. I actually think he has an outstanding chance in the first with Good Land so, as far as practice runs go, this could be very successful. He’s probably thinking “if I can win on Good Land, my confidence will be sky high and I can be free to dream about winning the 5th race”
Some of you may be wondering why we aren’t using Sam Ewing; a very good question. He certainly did nothing wrong at Christmas, did well to stay on when he made his mistake and, very sensibly, pulled him up when he was losing his confidence. When we saw the entries and the fact that Gordon Elliott had 11 entered, we took it for granted that Sam would be claimed by Gordon even if he eventually ‘only’ had five or six in the race. We still have half an eye on going back to Cheltenham for the Martin Pipe, so it made sense to see if one of the best (if not, the best Conditional jockey) was available. We figured out that Michael was likely to be available so reached out to him and he schooled the horse, and we were all set.
One of my mantras is that you can only make decisions based on what you know, or think you know, at the time; that there is absolutely no point in looking back retrospectively and saying “I should have done that instead”. I do not believe in regrets; certainly, there are many occasions when things could have turned out better with a different decision, but I had the chance and didn’t make that decision.
So, when someone says “ Sam Ewing doesn’t have a ride in the race so you should have used him” I will just look at them, shrug my shoulders and point out who will win the first race on Saturday. I will confess though to be very surprised that neither Sam or Davy Russell have a mount in Freedom To Dream’s race when Elliott has five runners. I guess the most likely horse for Davy to ride was Maxxum, but he is now being ridden by another very good young claimer Cian Quirke who is able to claim seven pounds. I imagine, with the weights going up six pounds, Gordon wanted to take a bit of weight off Maxxum’s back. For me, despite going up 37 pounds for his last two wins, Maxxum is the most likely winner of the race. He has looked very impressive in his two wins and the ground and distance will not be an issue. However, the initial reaction to his win at Christmas was to save him for Cheltenham and the Pertemps Final. He is already rated 145 in the UK (138 – Ireland) and another win would push him well into the 150’s for the Pertemps Final. If he doesn’t win on Sunday. I suspect connections will be happy to maintain the 145 rating and take pride in finishing second to Freedom to Dream.
Another pertinent question is “why have you given up so quickly on a chasing career?”. The short answer is “we haven’t” and the longer answer is “it’s complicated”. There just weren’t any suitable Beginners chases over the right distance, going and course to target in January and February. Once it gets to March, it really doesn’t make sense to lose his novice status for next season. We have always said that he would be a better chaser than hurdler; clearly the jury is currently out on that one, but we want to give him every chance.
And, I am getting a little tired of these questions, a final question is “why do you think three miles is the right trip for him?”. Well, we just don’t know. What do we know is that this is one of the few opportunities for horses of his rating over hurdles, the ground will be perfect, the weight is good and we have to find out some time.
If there are no further questions? (long pause….) good, that’s a relief. Now let me tell you about the weekend. Out for drinks and maybe a meal with Peter and Ber tonight, recovery tomorrow morning, join four friends in Dublin for the weekend’s racing and spend Monday morning counting my winnings before flying back to the States.
This is one weekend where the quality of racing almost beats the fact that Freedom to Dream is running; it is fantastic racing. If the weekend can bring the following, I will be a very happy man:
Good Land, Appreciate It and Honeysuckle all winning; Peter’s other two horses, Visionarian and The Big Dog running well (see note) and Freedom to Dream running a really a big race.
Note: When interviewed in the Irish Field, Peter only mentioned running two horses (give you a clue: neither was mine). This was either misdirection of the most sublime order, mind-blowing disrespect or complete amnesia. I plan to find out tonight
Wish us luck!!