3 minute read

Anthony & Sam Freedman trained Kings Consort has upset race favourite Bello Beau to win the $1 million VOBIS Showdown at Caulfield.

A maiden from three starts leading into today, Kings Consort landed a rich prize when winning his first race at Caulfield on Saturday, taking out the VOBIS Showdown for two-year-olds.

The Freedman stable initially had pre-post favourite Crosswinds in the race but put their faith in Kings Consort to deliver and he managed to overhaul the favourite Bello Beau who was brave after racing wide.

Stable representative Brad Taylor was thrilled with the result post-race, albeit a bit surprised.

"He's a horse that's always shown a little bit and he's a horse that is going to get further and when they went a nice tempo and Mark peeled him out at the top of the straight I thought he's going to be closing hard."

"Obviously we had the favourite (Crosswinds) earlier in the week and he unfortunately sustained an injury and missed the race so we thought we'd throw him in rather than go to Bendigo next week for a maiden," said Taylor.

Jockey Mark Zahra gave Kings Consort a beautiful swooping ride from back in the field but still had a lot of ground to make up over the final 200 metres, however Zahra admitted he was going in blindly.

"The world works in mysterious ways. We were on Crosswinds and he was due for a jump out last week and, to be honest, when he didn't accept and this one accepted, I said 'I've never heard of this horse, what happened here?"

"One went sore so I picked this up and thought alright away we go and luckily he's got the money," said Zahra.

Kings Consort ($10) got the better of Bello Beau ($2.60F) by a short neck, with 1 & ¼ lengths back to Volander ($41) in third.

"Kings Consort's flying!"

The @FreedmanRacing 2YO wins the $1m Showdown