Time Thief pleased Lee Freedman in a jumpout at his Markdel training establishment on Tuesday ahead of the classy colt taking on multiple Group One winners Weekend Hussler and Apache Cat in Saturday's Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.The beautifully-bred son of Redoute's Choice and Procrastinate needed a solid hitout, not having raced since his impressive first-up win over Fravashi and Fernandina in the Zeditave Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on January 26."He's had a couple of very quiet weeks si

Time Thief pleased Lee Freedman in a jumpout at his Markdel training establishment on Tuesday ahead of the classy colt taking on multiple Group One winners Weekend Hussler and Apache Cat in Saturday's Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.

The beautifully-bred son of Redoute's Choice and Procrastinate needed a solid hitout, not having raced since his impressive first-up win over Fravashi and Fernandina in the Zeditave Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on January 26.

"He's had a couple of very quiet weeks since the Zeditave and he's put on a little bit more weight than I would have wanted him to," Freedman told TVN.

"He's such a relaxed, laid-back horse and it was probably good to give him a bit of stimulation this morning.

"He'll come through that great and it should just top him off for Saturday."

Time Thief was ridden by Freedman's number one stable jockey Dwayne Dunn in the jumpout in which he picked up fast three-year-old Cardinal Virtue.

"I wanted to give him the three weeks after the Zeditave, it (the Australia Stakes) is the obvious race to run him in," Freedman said.

"He's taking on some great horses in that race, but he's pretty good and he'll acquit himself pretty well.

"I'm not overly confident, but I'm quietly confident because he goes well at the Valley and he has that little weight advantage on the other horses and he's in good form.

"He showed in the Zeditave he can race reasonably handy in his races so we probably wouldn't stray from that."

Freedman stopped short of saying that Time Thief could beat Weekend Hussler.

"He (Weekend Hussler) was a very good run in the Lightning (when an unlucky fourth) I think, but they are all beatable," he said.

"I guess the small field is going to help Weekend Hussler."

There are only eight entries for the Australia Stakes, a race Freedman won for the first time with Miss Andretti in 2007.

Seven-time Group One winner Weekend Hussler and six-time winner at the elite level Apache Cat, who won the weight-for-age feature last year, also meet Valley specialist Lucky Secret, a dual Group Two winner who has won six of his seven starts at the track and is unbeaten in four starts at 1200m.

Final acceptances for the Group One Australia Stakes (1200m) are taken at 9am (AEDT) on Wednesday.