Lee Freedman secures Kranji stables
Australian Hall of Fame trainer's Singapore foray starts from Friday
The Singapore Turf Club's Racing Committee has allocated stabling facilities to Australian Hall Of Fame trainer Lee Freedman effective from Friday.
Freedman's dominance in some of Australia's biggest races over more than two decades was remarkable.
The crown jewel to his accolades has to be his five Melbourne Cups, including two of the three won by star mare Makybe Diva.
Freedman won the "race that stops a nation" the first time in 1989 with Tawrrific, then in 1992 with Subzero and 1995 with Doriemus.
The 61-year-old also captured four consecutive Golden Slippers between 1993 and 1996 with Bint Marscay, Danzero, Flying Spur and Merlene, four Caulfield Cups and two Cox Plates.
Born in a racing family, Freedman made humble beginnings in Warwick Farm with brother Anthony in 1983, before moving to Flemington a year later.
They instantly met with greater success in Melbourne, with their first Group 1 winner not taking long to materialise, Miss Clipper in the SAJC Australasian Oaks in 1986.
From that point onwards, Lee became synonymous with success at the highest level in Australia. A whopping 124 Group 1 wins has come his way since, including one captured overseas, incidentally the Group 1 Singapore Airlines International Cup with Mummify in 2005.
He also landed the King's Stand at Royal Ascot with Miss Andretti in 2007 before the race was upgraded to Group 1 status.
Lee has had the distinction of training many champions, arguably headed by crowd favourite Super Impose, a winner of eight Group 1s, including the 1992 Cox Plate, two Epsom Handicaps and Doncaster Handicaps twice (1990 and 1991), Mannerism, Mahogany, Naturalism, Schillaci, all in the mid-1990s.
Lee decided to retire in 2011, leaving brothers Anthony and Michael to take over the family business.
When Michael moved to Singapore soon after, Anthony helmed the operations alone. Michael has since taken up a licence in Hong Kong.
After taking up various positions in the racing industry including Director of Racing for Lloyd Williams' Macedon Lodge, a training partnership with Sydney-based Graeme Rogerson and an adviser to Sir Peter Vela's Pencarrow Stud in New Zealand, Lee eventually returned to training in partnership with Anthony in 2014.
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