Racing: Hobby horse has earned her following

By JAMES GRAHAM

Jim McSheffrey's days of a $10 spec punt on his hobby horse Freestyler may be over for a while.

The 73-year-old Te Aroha trainer admits he only splashes out if the price is right.

But after Freestyler's impressive last-start win at Taupo, the five-year-old deserves to be at cramped odds in the progressive grade 1400 at Te Rapa today. McSheffrey has Freestyler impeccably placed to score her fourth win from just 11 starts. She is one of the few who will appreciate a firmish spring surface, runs over her pet distance, and meets a field no stronger than that she beat three weeks ago.

McSheffrey isn't the kind of trainer to talk up a horse, but he knows Freestyler has a huge fan base out there somewhere.

Despite a 10-week freshener and facing the group one placed Rapid Kay, Freestyler closed at $6.80 at Taupo when her trainer expected a return three times that.

"It's a bit of a mystery to me where all the money comes from," says McSheffrey, who part-owns the mare with son Rodney and his friend Karyn Mitchell.

McSheffrey knows it is not her behaviour away from the racetrack that is winning fans.

After a barrier scare as a two-year-old it took former trainer Paul Jenkins six months to get her anywhere near a starting gate.

Getting a decent line on her through trackwork is equally impossible.

At Matamata Freestyler wanted to race anything that came near her and still does, forcing Jenkins to hand her back to McSheffrey to work in the relative quiet of Te Aroha.

McSheffrey still doesn't leave anything to chance, working her after most of the other horses are half-way through their breakfast, and only risking heavyweights Michael Farmer and Scott Wenn in the saddle.

"She walks out like a lamb but as soon as she is on the track she grabs the bit and there are not many who can get on her," said McSheffrey.

Fortunately race day rider Gary Grylls has the right touch. He rode a copybook race at Taupo and should be able to stalk and pounce again today from another inside gate.

Quick beginners Roaring Jake, Iolana and Parfumerie can all bring Freestyler into the race when it counts.

Another suited to the drier surface today is Spit N Polish, who shapes as a drop-back special in the intermediate 2100m later in the card.

A six-year-old with open handicap placings to her credit, Spit N Polish was rated a feature cups hope last season and today meets one-win horses at set weights.

Her close-up 10th behind Tickle in PQ company last time out at Hastings when she was severely hampered in the middle stages was the run of a sharp improver.