News

The Omega Man a horse to watch

1st Jun 2013

Singapore Turf Club - Michael Lee - Sunday, 31 May 2013

​Trainer Michael Freedman was doubly delighted with the debut win of The Omega Man in the $65,000 Restricted Maiden race over 1200m on Friday night, firstly given the two-year-old gelding was raced by first-time owners and secondly because of his link with a black-type-winning mare previously prepared by his brother Lee.

Freedman homed in on the son of Northern Meteor at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale last year, after realising he was out of Brilliant Gem, a handy mare who won the Group 2 Sunline Stakes (1500m) for trainer Lee Freedman and prominent owner Gooree Pastoral headed by Eduardo Cojuangco in 2005.

Besides having fond memories of the dam, Freedman was also chuffed The Omega Man now races in the name of first-time owners headed by Duncan Munro and his partners under the Mummify Stable banner.

“Duncan, who is a director at Deutsche Bank, has owned a few horses with me before, but the rest of them are at their first purchase,” said the Australian handler who could already lock up the stable and go have a drink as The Omega Man was his only runner for the night.

“It’s always nice to see new fresh owners getting a win at their very first buy. I told the guys he’s been trialling okay, but I wasn’t overly confident he could win first-up.

“There was also a bit of a question mark over his form on turf as all his trackwork and trials have been on Polytrack.

“This horse has speed from his sire side. Northern Meteor is Australia’s current leading sire of two-year-olds and was a real speed son of Encosta De Lago.

“But this horse gives me every indication he has some potential over more distance, which is probably from his dam side, Brilliant Gem, who was trained by my brother Lee and won a Group 2 race over 1500m.”

Ridden by lightweight jockey Barend Vorster, The Omega Man ($51), who had only 50.5kg on his back, tracked leader So Free Now (Soo Khoon Beng) within touching distance before being eased to the middle of the track for his move upon straightening. The Omega Man quickly put the issue beyond doubt as he scooted clear at the 200m mark, before repelling a late challenge from another debutant, $190 roughie Fat Kiddy (Sam Subian) to score by a comfortable margin of 1 ½ lengths.

Favourite Happy Forever (John Powell) plugged on well, but never really threatened to finish third another half-a-length away. The winning time was 1min 10.84secs.

While The Omega Man was Freedman’s only runner for the night, he will be just a little busier on Sunday with four runners (Bogart, Eisenheim, Mr Mani and Slayer) fielded over the 11-race programme.