Act still has top billing
Old pros aim for BMW
THE “old firm” of Damien Oliver and Lee Freedman can combine for their first Group 1 victory in more than a decade with Exospheric in The BMW (2400m) at Rosehill tomorrow.
Oliver and Freedman were the nation’s dominant jockey-trainer combination through the 1990s into the 2000s when they teamed up to win 33 Group 1s, including a Melbourne Cup, three Caulfield Cups, a string of Derbys and Oaks, and two Newmarket Handicaps.
But they have not combined to win a Group 1 race since Alinghi won the 2005 Newmarket at Flemington.
Both men have continued their big-race success in the past decade or so, with Oliver’s most recent major coming on Lucia Valentina in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes during The Championships last year. Freedman, who now trains in partnership with his brother Anthony, prepared Our Ivanhowe to win the Ranvet Stakes last week.
It would be fitting if Oliver and Freedman can break their big-race drought with Exospheric tomorrow as the champion jockey is on the verge of a significant milestone.
Oliver has ridden 107 Group 1 winners during his celebrated riding career and is set to join Roy Higgins (108) in equal second place in the all-time standings for most Australian Group 1 wins. Only George Moore (119) has ridden more.
Oliver has rides in all three Group 1 races this weekend – Kaepernick in tonight’s William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley then tomorrow at Rosehill Kamili lines up in the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) before Exospheric.
Price assessors clearly rate Exospheric as the pick of his big-race rides, with the former English stayer racing well without winning in his four Australian starts this season.
Oliver rode Exospheric in those four runs for a third in the Caulfield Cup to Jameka, an eighth behind Almandin in the Melbourne Cup then his two weight-for-age starts in Melbourne this autumn – including his luckless third to Humidor and Jameka in the Australian Cup.