Successful French owner Jean-Marc Charmat is hoping to do what his English trainer Luca Cumani couldn't and win a Melbourne Cup after Speed Gifted made a spectacular Australian debut at Flemington on Saturday.
The former Cumani-trained stayer joined the Lee Freedman stable in February and was having his first startunder 2400m when he charged home from third last to score a stunning 2-length win over Count To Zero and Scenic Scene in the AGL Renewable Energy Trophy (1620m).
Cumani, who has trained second placegetters Purple Moon and Bauer in the past two Melbourne Cups, got Speed Gifted to win twice in eight starts in England with the gelding's most notable performances thirds over 2414m in the listed Godolphin Stakes at Newmarket and the listed Hildon Tapster at Goodwood.
The son of Montjeu was a pick-up for the Freedman stable when Anthony Freedman and stable vet John Walker last year scouted England looking for suitable Melbourne Cup horses.
Six horses were bought for the stable's Ball and Chain Syndicate for prices ranging from 35,000 to 75,000 guineas, but Charmat, who has a large team of horses with Cumani, also expressed interest in Freedman's quest to win a sixth Melbourne Cup.
"We bought six horses and Speed Gifted was one of two horses we picked up as well," stable manager Sam Pritchard-Gordon said. Speed Gifted is the fifth of the eight English horses to race for Freedman and the first to win.
Jockey Dwayne Dunn said Speed Gifted had been the least impressive of the English horses on the training track but he had the Flemington race won a long way from home.
"It was pretty impressive the way he towed me up to them," Dunn said.
"He was going to beat them a long way out and he's a horse who gets 2400m, so hopefully he has bigger and better things to do."
Pritchard-Gordon said that, at this stage, the Ball and Chain Syndicate horses were not in the same class as Speed Gifted but the stable was optimistic about their prospects.
