3 minute read

Lee Freedman’s first runner from his new stable has finished the closest of seconds at Ipswich.

Lee Freedman has narrowly failed to make a fairytale start to his latest training venture with Intrepidacious edged out by her former stablemate Lillemor in the Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich. 

Racing for new owners, Intrepidacious was the Hall Of Fame trainer's first runner from his new Gold Coast stable and went down by the barest possible margin of a nose. 

The Listed race was won by the John O'Shea-trained Lillemor, who is now unbeaten from two runs this campaign and showed great tenacity to score after racing wide. 

Her victory gave Ben Thompson a race-to-race feature double after he took out the Listed Eye Liner Stakes (1100m) aboard Snitch for Tony Gollan. 

Speaking after his Eye Liner victory, Thompson said he was rapt to land a win in a drawcard card, adding Snitch appreciated getting to the outside. 

"It's really nice to get a feature winner on a big day," Thompson said. 

"He loves space and once I was able to follow Really Discreet into the straight and give him plenty of room he balanced up and gave me a good kick." 

Snitch gave Thompson his first victory in the Eye Liner Stakes and Gollan his third after Alma's Fury (2014) and I'm A Rippa (2018). 

Gollan said he was upbeat about Snitch's chances if he could get the right run. 

"We came here with a lot of confidence. We were obviously worried about Amish Boy but he did a great job this horse. Ben rode him beautifully and everything opened up nicely," Gollan said. 

Snitch reeled in leader Axe to score by a half-length with Right Or Wrong a close-up third, just ahead of the luckless Amish Boy.