Former New Zealand galloper Open Minded (NZ) (Jimmy Choux) continued his picket fence formline at Sandown on Wednesday when winning over 1200m.
It was the third win from as many starts for the Anthony Freedman-trained gelding and Freedman’s Racing Manager Brad Taylor believes there is plenty left in-store for the son of Jimmy Choux.
“That was an outstanding ride by Mark (Zahra, jockey), our only instruction was to find cover to teach the horse to settle, as he has led in both his race day starts to date,” Taylor said.
“He settled beautifully when Mark found his spot and the way he put them away indicates he is clearly better than this level.
“He is a horse that didn’t hold a lot of condition in his first preparation but really improved with the break and you saw that in the yard before the race.”
The three-year-old gelding was a private purchase out of New Zealand by Dream Thoroughbred’s Dave Azzopardi. The gelding was identified by bloodstock agent Lenny Russo of Bluegrass Bloodstock after he won a Te Rapa trial last winter for former trainer Roger Lang.
“Since the day he arrived he has always shown nice ability but this was a big step up from Class 1 to Benchmark 70 level in town against the older horses today,” Taylor said.
“We knew he had improved and based on that effort there is no reason why you couldn’t take him to a Saturday race.
“There are options for a galloper like him both here in Victoria where the prizemoney is still very good or alternatively we could look at the carnival in Adelaide at a couple of black type three-year-old events.”
