Asakura is an improving Victorian galloper, now confirmed for the NZB Kiwi. Photo / Brett Holbert
The stars have aligned to bring Victorian 3-year-old Asakura to New Zealand’s richest horse race, but now her connections have a very different type of star to worry about.
The Mitch Freedman-trained gelding is confirmed for the $4 million NZB Kiwi at Ellerslie on March 7, being secured by big-spending owner Ozzie Kheir after intense interest from other parties right up until Tuesday night.
While three Australian-trained horses started in the inaugural NZB Kiwi last season, the slot race had struggled to find many Australian connections keen to cross the Tasman this season to take on Well Written, the unbeaten Cambridge filly who is at $1.20 to win the 1500m feature.
But while Freedman knows Asakura is up against it, the trainer says he can’t wait to get his emerging 3-year-old across and admits the thought of bringing him to the Kiwi was actually put in his head by somebody who is now a rival syndicate member.
“Mark Carter’s bloodstock business [Jomara Bloodstock] bred this horse and Mark still owns part of him and he rang me a while ago and asked if I thought he could make a NZB Kiwi horse,” Freedman said.
“He was asking because he is part of The Kings Men syndicate who own a slot but because I wasn’t sure our horse would be ready for that sort of trip, they secured another horse.
“But that was what first got me thinking about the race and since then, this horse has kept improving and how he came through his latest race on Saturday suggested to me he is ready.”
Another piece of the puzzle that fits for Asakura he is a gelding so there is no stud value in him chasing black type in races like the Australian or Rosehill Guineas, with Freedman also realistic about where he sits in the pecking order for those races.
“The pressure is off in that regard and the Kiwi has great stake money so it makes sense for a whole lot of reasons.”
Freedman is a Karaka sales regular who has also been to his share of Karaka Millions nights, including on January 24 this year, so he knows just how special Well Written is.
“She is something else, we all saw what she did that night and if that Well Written turns up, maybe we are racing for second or third,” he said.
“But racing is a funny thing and we are excited to get over there and give him his chance.
“Then, more than likely, he will stay there and spell before he comes back and the way he is improving and learning, I think we have a really nice horse on our hands.”
Asakura was a brave second in the C.S. Hayes Stakes at Flemington last Saturday and while he still has plenty of maturing to do, racing with his head higher than is ideal, he has tactical speed and doesn’t give in when he is tired.
“We have Dean Yendall coming to ride him and he is a character so he will add something to the day as well,” Freedman said.
While Freedman is one of the most famous names in Australian racing and Anthony Freedman trained Ockham’s Razor to win the 2012 Karaka Millions at Ellerslie, Mitch Freedman would appreciate not being asked about the famous family connection.
Because there isn’t one.
“I am not related to the famous Freedman brothers at all and obviously people used to ask me all the time but now pretty much everybody over here knows that,” he smiled.
“So I will leave it to you to let people over there know before we get there.”
If Asakura becomes the first horse to beat Well Written and the first Australian to win the NZB Kiwi, a new Freedman fairy tale will be born.
What: New Zealand’s first mega-money slot race for thoroughbreds.
When: March 7.
Where: Ellerslie.
Who: Three-year-olds either bred in New Zealand or sold at an NZB sale.
Conditions: $4 million listed race over 1500m at set weight and penalties.
Confirmed: Well Written, Affirmative Action, Romanoff, He Who Dares, Belle Cheval, Lollapalooza, Asakura.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.