It's a case of back to the future for trainer Lee Freedman who will be vying for his fourth Group One Doomben Cup with imported stayer Doctor Fremantle on Saturday.Freedman enjoyed great success over the past two decades with horses he's brought north for the winter carnival which led to him opening a Brisbane satellite stable at Eagle Farm for four years before its closure in 2001."I've been coming to Queensland for more than 20 years but we went through a stage there for a few years when we di
It's a case of back to the future for trainer Lee Freedman who will be vying for his fourth Group One Doomben Cup with imported stayer Doctor Fremantle on Saturday.
Freedman enjoyed great success over the past two decades with horses he's brought north for the winter carnival which led to him opening a Brisbane satellite stable at Eagle Farm for four years before its closure in 2001.
"I've been coming to Queensland for more than 20 years but we went through a stage there for a few years when we didn't bring any horses up because of bad weather," he said.
Freedman has based his winter team this year at Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and is impressed with the facilities and set-up.
"I've never had a horse trained out of Caloundra before and I'm wondering why I haven't done it in the past," Freedman said.
"It's truly a magnificent set-up and I'll be coming back next year."
Freedman has no plans to open a satellite stable at Caloundra but will keep an open mind to the idea.
He won his first Doomben Cup with Abstraction when the race was a handicap in 1989.
His next win was in 1994 with Durbridge who survived a protest from stablemate Paris Lane while Bush Padre gave him his last victory in 2003.
Freedman believes the real Doctor Fremantle will be on show in the Doomben Cup if weather forecasters are right with their predictions.
The Brisbane weather bureau has forecast rain developing on Friday with showers clearing on race day.
Freedman concedes Doctor Fremantle has been a frustrating horse to train and will use glue-on shoes on the son of Sadler's Wells.
Doctor Fremantle arrived from Great Britain with a big reputation but the boom was lowered after successive defeats in the Group Two Blamey Stakes (1600m) at Flemington in March and the Group One Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick last month.
The entire won five races from 13 starts in England and France including Group Three wins in the Chester Vase (2474m) at Chester in May 2008 and the Huxley Stakes (2080m) on the same track in May last year.
He also won the Group Two Princess Of Wales (2414m) at Newmarket last July.
As a three-year-old he finished fourth to New Approach in the Group One Epsom Derby (2424m) in June 2008 and fourth to Montmartre in the Group One Juddmonte (2400m) at Longchamp in Paris the following month.
Doctor Fremantle has found Australian tracks too hard and a foot abscess developed following his latest run in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
"He let us down badly in the Queen Elizabeth but we found out later he had a foot abscess," Freedman said.
"It's right now but I've found with a lot of the imported horses it's a good way to go with glue-on shoes.
"His form in Europe was impeccable. If the right Doctor Fremantle turns up he'll be right in the finish.
"He only missed a couple of days work with the foot problem and didn't lose any fitness after the Queen Elizabeth run."
Melbourne jockey Dwayne Dunn rode Doctor Fremantle when sixth to Lord Tavistock in the Blamey Stakes and will be back aboard for the Doomben Cup replacing Kerrin McEvoy.