Saturday, 5 May 2012: Team Darley horses ran one-two in the $150,000 Listed Blacktown Workers Hawkesbury Guineas at Hawkesbury on Saturday when Free Wheeling held off Pied A Terre to score.
Free Wheeling had shown plenty of ability with a win in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Eagle Farm
last spring but then suffered an injury in the Sires Produce and it has been a fairly long road back.
Ridden by Hugh Bowman on Saturday, Free Wheeling sat up close to the speed which was strong after
the saddle shifted on race leader
Famous Seamus (Freeman-Key).
Approaching the turn, and with nothing else making a move, Bowman clicked up Free Wheeling and the
colt responded, reeling in
Famous Seamus by the 250m before going on to score a comfortable victory.
Pied A Terre (Reith) kept making ground along the rails throughout and managed to get into second
place in the shadows of the post.
At the line the margin between first and second was four lengths with a further neck to Bound To Blush,
who finished strongly in the centre of the track, in third. The overall time was 1.22.47 with the last 600m
run in 35.18.
“The pigeon took a long time to drop, we needed to get one here today and this was a great one to get,”
Snowden said.
“I think Hughy was aware (the saddle shifted on the leader) so he had him in the right spot, he was
going to Johnny on the spot when the leader compounded, so full credit to him, he rode him accordingly
and won the race.”
“There was a lot of pressure early but I didn't expect to find myself as close as I was,” Bowman said.
“There was a bit of disruption at the first turn and my guy was racing a bit keen so I let him slide and we
ended up in a nice spot and the pace was pretty strong.
“Even though my guy was racing a bit on fear, I was able to let me do that and it was probably the
telling factor in the end.
“He is a horse with a good bit of ability, he showed that when he won his race up in Queensland, he won
with a fair bit of authority, then he had an accident the following start, so he had a lot of time off to get
over a few things.
“He is going to improve, he did race a bit on fear today, as soon as he learns to relax and get into a
rhythm he is going to be a lot better horse.”
Free Wheeling is by Ad Valorem (USA) out of the Last Tycoon (IRE) mare Miss Carefree and is owned
by Sheikh Mohammed.
