2 days ago
Beaumont Newcastle preview: Muir motors on with promising filly
Trainer Matthew Smith is intent on ensuring the colours of one of the sport's living legends fly high at Beaumont on Tuesday and well into what he forecasts is a bright future for the flashy filly, Fairhead.
Iconic owner/breeder and businessman John Muir has much to look forward to, Smith says, with Fairhead who was born and raised at Muir's boutique nursery, Milburn Creek, situated at Grose Vale on the banks of the Hawkesbury river.
Fairhead is the first horse Smith has trained for Muir – for many years, the man behind the Muir Motors dealership at Ashfield – and he's glad to have them both on his team.
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'John is a top man,'' Smith said.
'He breeds some nice horses. He doesn't muck around. He's got good mares and they breed them well.
'I am bloody happy to have one for him and I think Fairhead will make the grade once she gets over a bit of ground next prep.
'I quite like her actually.'
Fairhead, an aptly-named chestnut with three white feet and a baldy face, was bred to win a Golden Slipper being a half-sister to the Muir-designed Sizzling.
And despite the fact she is also by the speed stallion Pariah, Smith has Fairhead pegged as a stayer in the making.
'She's got stayer written all over her, she'll go all day,'' he said.
'She ran well the other day. She stepped out of a Country Maiden to a Benchmark 64 and she wasn't beaten far.''
Fairhead storms home and wins on the line at Goulburn! @AlyshaCollett | @mcsmithracing
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) May 30, 2025
Fairhead will have company in Tuesday's Horsepower feeds Class 1 & Maiden Plate (2100m) from her imported stablemate De Louviere.
The son of German Derby winner Sea The Moon blotted an otherwise exemplary copybook when f ading to finish down the order at Wyong in what was a no-holds barred, energy-sapping war of attrition over 2000m.
'They just overdid it up front,'' Smith said. 'I wanted to go forward but not doing all the work.
'He's freshened-up nicely. I'm really happy with him. I can't see him running a bad race, his work has been great.
'He has got a stack of weight, we probably should have claimed on him, but he does handle wet tracks and he is fit and well.'
Smith meanwhile couldn't have crafted a more favourable set of circumstances to aid the blue-blooded Tonkatsu Goddess post her second career win on Tuesday after a close-call at Newcastle on June 14.
'I think the winner of that race might be okay,'' Smith said. 'The margin was less than a length and they beat the others clearly.
'I thought she ran great, the other horse was just too good.
'She has drawn well and likes it wet and she's fit. She should be hard to beat.
'She's always around the money somewhere, she has just been a later maturer and has taken a bit of time that's all.'
Tonkatsu Goddess races in the famous Francis and Christine Cook colours; the same worn by Smith's Toorak Handicap, Cantala Stakes and Makybe Diva Stakes triple Group 1 winner, Fierce Impact.
And like him, Tonkatsu Goddess is of Japanese descent on her dam-side, boasting successful 2015 George Ryder Stakes raider Real Impact close up on her page.
Smith's remaining runner on Tuesday's card is the lightly-raced Andhe's Brave who steps out for just the third time in his career in the Dailey Family Funerals Maiden Plate (1150m).
'He is a big, backward horse,' Smith said.
'He is doing a good job. Both runs have been good and now he has drawn a decent gate I think he will be right there.'
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Freedmans on a roll ahead of Tuesday's Beaumont meeting
Richard and Will Freedman are hoping to start the month of July in the same way they ended June when the father and son training duo cart two of their young string to Newcastle for today's Beaumont meeting.
The Rosehill-based partnership were credited with one of the shortest-priced winners of the entire 2024/25 season when Cold Brew lashed his rivals at Winx-like odds of $1.28.
Fast forward three days to Saturday and the Freedmans collected another Midway, this time with the 2024 Four Pillars placegetter, Rolling Magic.
'It's been a good period,'' Will Freedman said.
'We have actually got quite a young team at the moment so it will be a busy winter into spring for us.'
The Freedmans' first runner on Tuesday's card is the New Zealand-bred Sir Tua who looks a potentially cheap purchase after being secured at Karaka in 2024 for $35,000.
That's despite the now gelded son of Tagaloa tracing back on a direct line to a mare named Imitation who will be forever remembered as the mother of Bonecrusher.
While it is unlikely Sir Tua will ever 'race into equine immortality' himself, he does have a future as time goes by.
'He is doing things a bit wrong at the moment,'' Freedman reported.
'His racing manners aren't exactly where we would like them to be. He is trying to do things a little bit aggressively but we have taken the view that you don't learn a lot in the paddock.
'He is just learning his racecraft and when he puts it all together, he has got the ability to be well and truly out of maiden grade.'
Tricolours' easily recognisable silks will be on show at Beaumont on Tuesday, worn by in-form jockey Alysha Collett aboard the handsome debutante Hell Island.
The son of Hellbent's latest trial reads as 'last of nine' at Rosehill but with excuses.
'We just got caught behind horses going very comfortably and he didn't have anywhere to go,'' Freedman said
'He is probably the odds you would expect for a horse that hasn't been overly competitive in metropolitan trials but I think in both of his sets of trials, he has been under pretty hard holds.'
Hell Island was bred by prominent owner/breeder Richard Pegum of Amelia's Dream (et al) fame.
Tricolours' gelding was offered by Cressfield as agent at the Magic Millions Yearling sale in 2024, knocked down for the not insignificant sum of $135,000.
