The Anthony and Sam Freedman stable has taken a different approach in their chase of a rich prize at the Gold Coast with Warning.
The former Victoria Derby winner is on a path to the Magic Millions Subzero (2200m) on January 13 and is expected to head to race third-up from a break.
Warning ran sixth in the corresponding race this year but had come off a fairly strenuous year having raced through the spring in Melbourne followed by a run in Sydney on his way to the Gold Coast.
After a winter campaign in Brisbane, Warning bypassed the majority of this year’s spring and had the first run of his campaign on Melbourne Cup Day, finishing second to Forgot You over 1800m at Flemington.
Sam Freedman said Warning was going to run on Saturday in the Listed Ballarat Cup (2000m) but had suffered a minor setback forcing him to miss the race.
Instead, the Freedman stable is looking to run Warning in the Group 3 Summer Cup (2000m) at Randwick on Boxing Day.
Freedman said he was looking forward to seeing Warning back racing, saying the gelding had been going well before his slight set-back.
“He’s super. He ran really well first-up over 1800 metres on Melbourne Cup Day and has come back so well,” Freedman said.
“Being 2200 metres, it’s the right race for him this year and it will come around at the right time and it’s worth a lot of money.”
Freedman said the stable was unlikely to have a contender in the main Gold Coast race, the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m).
But the stable is gearing up for the upcoming major two-year-old races in Melbourne and Sydney in which they hope to be a major player in again early next year.
“We have a heap trialling on Monday at Werribee and Cranbourne, so hopefully with the Blue Diamond Series down here looming we’ll have a few that will measure up,” Freedman said.