This story has been hitting the headlines the last few days and believe me the owner has made a big mistake.
Lee Freedman is a champion trainer and achieved wonders with this horse, the new trainer is now under immense
pressure to go better.
Freedman knows how to peak on the day and that is the key to a champion trainer, I have rated his horses since 1987
and his improvement each run made my assessments of fitness so much easier than the thousands of hit and miss trainers.
Arrogance, sure u must have it, many champions do and that is the key for that person to perform even better.
Over my time rating horses I would of had on social media 10,000 postings "he's a cheat, liar, imposter, does not even exist, fraud etc"
It spurred me on to even greater things because I stuck with my guns at what I thought was right or wrong.
Very few in the world would take me on now.
After Freedman’s heyday, he went off the boil, just burnt out and now back on track is still one of the top 5 trainers in Australia.
He had 3rd and 4th string horses from Godolphin, and fair dinkum half the horses were missing, very small, low quality,
yet he did his best and won bush races with them on 100% fit.
You cannot do any more.
Time will tell with the new trainer but me personally, he should of stayed with a winner!
James
Ben Melham and Lee Freedman after Malaguerra won on Melbourne Cup Day last year (Image: Slickpix)
Freedman hits back at Malaguerra owner
Lee Freedman has taken offence to suggestions his stable has poor communication in the wake of the Malaguerra fiasco that has come to the boil this week.
Bruno Micalizzi, the owner of Malaguerra, made such claims on Racing.com’s Racing Ahead on RSN 927 on Wednesday, suggesting a lack of contact as the reason the Group 1-winning sprinter has been shifted to the Peter Gelagotis stable.
But Freedman refuted Micalizzi’s comments and highlighted that Malaguerra improved from a benchmark of 64 to 108 under the care of his brother Anthony and himself.
“Freedman Racing was not going to offer any comment on the removal of Malaguerra from our stable but some commentary in the media has inflamed the ugly side of social media and engendered some wild misconceptions,” he said.
“We defend our high standards of training and communication and totally refute any claims otherwise.
“Whilst our standards are high the very occasional lapse would be no different in any business.”
While acknowledging there have been many to sink the boot in over the past two days, Freedman indicated he has also received plenty of messages of support.
“I would like to thank our legion of loyal owners, big and small, who have phoned or emailed with messages of support. We are very grateful for that,” he said.
“We are proud of our achievement taking Malaguerra from a BM64 horse to a 108-rater and we acknowledge the work of our staff in helping achieve this.
“We wish Mr Micalizzi good fortune with Malaguerra in the future.”
