PHILLIP Thurston admitted the decision to stop training classy mare Freedom Is was one of the toughest he's made in his 37 years in the sport, but it paid off yesterday when the four-year-old added her name to Red Ochre folklore with a win in Sunday's $30,000 feature at Dubbo Paceway.
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Thurston previously trained the mare from his Forbes base but elected to send her to Hewitt when the task of travelling her to Menangle and back became too taxing.
"She has always shown ability and it was getting too hard to keep taking her down there all the time and expecting her to run well, so I sent her to David," Thurston said.
"He's at Goulburn so it's not that far for him to go down there and race her and he's pretty close to a few other tracks as well.
"It was hard to give up training her but then you look at what she's done today, she's won a Group race, and you realise it was the right decision.
"It panned out well because she was a bit flat from the travel the other night but she was able to stay at my place in between the heat and final, so it was only a short run up from Forbes for her to race today."
Punters found the Red Ochre a hard race to figure out, with Freedom Is and Hi Its Only Me battling for favouritism off the back of good heat runs on Wednesday night.
Freedom Is only managed to finish second in her qualifier, but with the benefit of that run she proved to be the class mare when it counted.
There was drama right from the start of the race when Riverina raider Barrietta's Bliss broke and tailed out.
Up front it was left to My Whiskey Lullaby ($11.30, Josh Willick) to assume the front with Hi Its Only Me ($3.00 eq fav, Ashlee Siejka) parked in the death seat.
Freedom Is found the perfect spot trailing Hi It's Only Me, and that is how the pattern remained for the bulk of the race.
The only real move came when The Wife's Calling ($32.70, Murray Sullivan) hooked three wide with a lap remaining, leading up a train that included Chevals Charette and Barrietta's Bliss, however they never really got into the race.
Despite being pocketed for a short while, Hewitt was able to get clear running room prior to the home turn and from that point the race turned into a battle between the two favourites, with OK Alright ($39.60, Michael Day) the only runner looming from behind.
On the line Freedom Is had 3.1 metres to spare from Hi It's Only Me, with OK Alright a further 0.3m away in third place.
"We had the perfect run really. I anticipated Ash (Siejka) would go forward so when I was able to lob onto her back I was pretty happy," Hewitt said after the race.
"The never really went that hard in front and I knew it would be hard for anything to come from behind and win the race.
"The Wife's Calling had me pocketed for a bit there but I thought it would struggle to run it right out so I waited for it to drop off a bit and when it did I got out and from that point on I was pretty confident.
"She's a nice mare. Her record shows she has always been handy but she's been unlucky this season not to have won three or four races.
"To get a Group win with her is great, and to get it on a country track is even better because the atmosphere is great. We're country people as well, and Phil doesn't live far from here so it's been a really special win."
The overall time for the 2120m journey was 2:39.3 with a mile rate of 2:00.9 recorded.
