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Returning trainer to start training in Queensland next month

Lee Freedman has announced a starting date for his new venture on the Gold Coast, with the Hall Of Fame trainer expecting to be 'operational' by May 21. 

The five-time Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)-winning trainer has been granted access to boxes at Aquis Park Gold Coast, where he plans to relaunch his Australian career next month after three-and-a-half years based in Singapore.

"I am looking forward to being back," Freedman told Racing.com. "It is never easy, no matter who you are, to start from absolute scratch in terms of stables and horses but that's part of the fun of the game.

"We are going to build it up. If people think we are going to hit the ground in June with a string of winners in June, it's not going to happen. We won't even have the runners, so it will take a few months to build it, but we will build it."

Freedman said on Wednesday that he has listed a May 21 date for the stable to be up and running while indicating he will require more than the 20 boxes he has been able to secure so far.

"At most race clubs everywhere, space is a problem, but I am fortunate enough the club found these 20 boxes for me, which is great," Freedman said.

"I am working on a couple of other options over the next week or two, which I hope to bear fruit in that area, apart from the club."

Freedman has been an active buyer at yearlings sales, as have former clients.

"I've got about 18 yearlings, which I bought at the sales, and a couple of other people have sent me some," he said.

"We've had a bit of a strategy, based around value horses and with the QTIS sales up here. We've had some clients buy us horses and we've syndicated one or two.

"So we've got a spread of horses that are Queensland-centric with the QTIS bonus here, plus some other horses mainly from the Inglis sales that we've split up among existing clients that I had before I went to Singapore.”