Moonlight could shine in Taj Rossi Final

Friday 5 July 2019, 3:39pm

A filly produced by two horses Mitchell Freedman knows really well is a chance to give the trainer his first stakes race victory at Flemington.

Freedman will saddle up Moonlight Maid in Saturday's Taj Rossi Series Final (1600m) for two-year-olds, with the untapped filly earning her shot at the Listed race at just her second start after a 2-1/4-length maiden win at Geelong against her own age and sex last month.

Moonlight Maid is a daughter of stallion Puissance De Lune and Manhattan Maid, two horses Freedman worked with during his time as Warrnambool foreman for the Darren Weir stable.

"Moonlight Maid was his (Puissance De Lune) first winner and he was obviously a horse I had a fair bit to do with," Freedman said.

"And then also I had a fair bit to do with the mother of the horse as well.

"So I know the family well enough and she shows good traits from both of them.

"From the time we got her into the stable she has shown good natural ability and she obviously put the score on the board in her first start."

Import Puissance De Lune's feature race wins during his racing career included the Group Two Blamey Stakes and PB Lawrence Stakes in 2013, and the 2012 Group Three Queen Elizabeth Stakes, while Manhattan Maid won the 2011 Listed Dequetteville Stakes as a two-year-old.

Ballarat-based Freedman has trained 38 winners so far this season and the 30-year-old expects Moonlight Maid to stretch out even further in distance in time and believes stepping straight to 1600m from 1240m on debut will not be an issue.

"Her pedigree suggests that the mile will be to her liking and the way she has been working at home since that run suggests that she wants every bit of the mile at the moment," he said.

"She goes there in good shape. She is probably up in the weights enough only coming off a maiden win, but she certainly hasn't gone backwards since her first-up win.

"We'll probably look to send her to the paddock off the back of that for a short little break if she shows that she is going to be up to the spring.

"Otherwise we'll give her a good spell and set her for the autumn."

– AAP

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