The Freedman family enjoyed great success with triple Group 1 winner Shoals and this Saturday they will unleash her first foal in the $150,000 Parade Lounge Sprint that kicks off the Flemington card.
Co-trainer Sam Freedman has been happy with what he has seen from Isthmus in preparation for the 1100-metre event that will be the first race run at Flemington since the Australian Cup meeting on March 25 after the abandonment of the Anzac Day meeting.
“She’s still going to be a bit new, but she’s shown nice ability and is a good-actioned, very sensible filly,” Freedman said.
“We wanted to run her at a nice track and this time of year they can be hard to find that, so that’s why she’s there.”
Shoals started her career when Sam’s father Anthony was training in partnership with his brother Lee and the daughter of Fastnet Rock won three times in the second half of her juvenile season before Anthony started training her solo.
She went on to win another four races as a three-year-old, including the Empire Rose Stakes (1600m), Surround Stakes (1400m) and Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) at Group 1 level.
Shoals is a member of one of the most revered families in the Australian studbook, being out of the Hussonet mare The Broken Shore, who is a half-sister to Group 1 winners Redoute’s Choice, Platinum Scissors and Manhattan Rain, along with Sliding Cube, who is the dam of Rubick.
The Broken Shore has had four others to race – Tides, Groundswell, Rapids and Fjord – with Groundswell, who is also by Fastnet Rock, the only other to get to the track before turning three.
Freedman, therefore, did not expect Isthmus, a daughter of I Am Invincible who is raced in partnership by Arrowfield Stud and Jonathan Munz’s Pinecliff Racing, to have been ready to race before now.
“She’s got the page to obviously be anything and she’s shown positive signs so far,” he said.
“She’s much like the family and just taken a bit of time. They’re not precocious, pre-Christmas two-year-olds, so we’ve just waited for her to get ready and this preparation she’s taken every step and is ready to go.
“It’s hard to get a line on her, a lot of her work has been on soft and heavy ground on the (Mornington) Peninsula and her last trial you couldn’t tell much, but her work has been really good.”
Isthmus has drawn barrier nine in the field of 10 for Saturday’s race, for which she is favourite and will have the services of Blake Shinn.