3 minute read
Had Manaal’s luck been a bit better when barriers were drawn for Saturday’s $5m TAB Golden Slipper (1200m), trainer Michael Freedman would be a little more bullish about her chances of beating the boys at Rosehill.
As it stands he can say the filly has had the perfect preparation and if things sway her way he's confident she can give them something to worry about in the last 200m.
Freedman, who won the 2021 Slipper with Stay Inside in partnership with brother Richard, is banking on the 2024 edition being a battle of attrition and a year that a swooper comes into play.
"I'm very relaxed about it, I think she's had an ideal lead up to it,'' Michael Freedman said.
"Whether the colts have got that much on the fillies remains to be seen but I'll come into this race as confident as I was with Stay Inside in his year.
"I think she's had just as good a preparation. Obviously barriers do play a big part.
"I haven't seen too many Slippers run in my lifetime where there's not plenty of pressure on. I can't see it being any different, there's plenty of on speed runners on paper regardless of where they draw.
"She's good enough out of the gates to take up a spot if she drew a gate but she's also quite versatile where as soon as she finds a backside she drops the bit.
"It could be one of those Slippers potentially that's won by a closer."
Manaal, a $51 chance after her price doubled with the outside gate, has been a two-year-old that's been somewhat under the radar for most of the season having won the Gimcrack on debut as a $19 chance.
She gave Lady Of Camelot weight and a head start when she returned in the Widden on February 3 and lived up to her favouritism taking out the Sweet Embrace Stakes three weeks ago.
Fireburn (2022) is the last Sweet Embrace winner to claim the Slipper.
"Back that early in the season it'd be easy to say they are Slipper horses but you're never quite sure how they come back in the autumn,'' Freedman said.
"I think she's made that natural progression and improvement from spring to autumn and I can't fault her prep.
"She gave 3kg to Lady of Camelot first-up in the Widden and gave a big start, ran great sectionals, came out and won the Sweet Embrace pretty comfortably.
"I'm not sure what more she's got to do to prove her credentials."
Jason Collett rides Manaal in the Slipper, he put her through her paces on Tuesday morning and told Freedman she feels like a push-button filly.
Freedman is happy to test Ducasse in the Group 1 $750,000 Sky Racing Rosehill Guineas (2000m) after a gallant effort in the Randwick Guineas.
The colt was beaten 1.3 lengths by Celestial Legend after enduring a tough run and that gives the trainer some confidence he'll extend further in distance.
"It's a little bit of a trial going to the 2000m being a Trapeze Artist but he gives every indication he will enjoy it,'' he said.
"I thought his run in the Randwick Guineas, where with the blinkers on he did get over racing a bit and he was wide and had to do a bit of work, was great and he really stuck it out well.
"I thought he was entitled to drop out and get beaten further than he did. If the track strays a bit soft it won't worry him."
A soft track is something Blanc De Blanc hasn't seen a whole lot of but she hasn't seen a lot of racing either since she ran sixth in last year's Golden Slipper.
She resumed with a below par performance at Caulfield in early February, where she didn't like a shifty track, and was a late scratching from her engagement in the Fireball two weeks ago.
He's more than happy with the filly's condition and her work ahead of the Listed $200,000 Irresistible Pools Darby Munro Stakes (1200m) has been pleasing.
"The track conditions for her could be a little query because she's never been on anything but firm tracks,'' he said.
"She did get on a choppy track in the last race down in Melbourne and didn't like it much."
