Written by Paul Vettise
A bright future over more ground has been tipped for Exhibition (Vancouver), who opened his winning account at Randwick where he produced a valiant display after looking at one stage like he was going to finish second best.
However, the colt showed the determined side of his nature and lifted tenaciously to win Saturday’s Magna Grecia New To Coolmore H. at the expense of the commanding favourite Angel Helena (More Than Ready {USA}).
Trained by Richard and Michael Freedman, Exhibition was making the second appearance of his career and showed pleasing improvement on a debut fifth against older opposition at Newcastle earlier in the month.
“He’s done a good job to go from 1200 metres straight to 1500 metres. He’s a bit different to his half-brother Japonisme, who was a speed horse, and he looks like he’ll get plenty further,” Michael Freedman said.
“Richard and I will have a bit of a chat about it, but we might give him a break now. He’s a young horse that we might aim at some of the better staying 3-year-old races in the spring.”
“He’s a young horse that we might aim at some of the better staying 3-year-old races in the spring.” – Michael Freedman
Exhibition was caught three deep in the early running before he was able to slot in behind the pace-making duo and he answered every call of rider Andrew Adkins in the straight.
The well-supported Angel Helena finished well, but Exhibition lifted bravely to down the hot pot by a short half-head with Silhouette (Teofilo {Ire}) a long neck back in third and they were lengths superior to the rest.
“He’s going to go on to bigger and better things. He might need a bit of headgear to switch him on a bit more,” Adkins said. “He won quite nicely and the speed was genuine early and then they really backed it off half-way through.
“I popped him off to keep his momentum up because I knew he wasn’t going to dash and it would be a long wind-up job.”
Exhibition as a yearling
Exhibition’s victory continued a good trot for his Rosehill trainers with placement of their horses the key to success.
“We haven’t got a star-studded stable at the moment so we’re taking them where we think they can win and if that means going a bit far and wide then sobeit,” Freedman said.
“We’ve got a nice team of yearlings starting to filter through now and a few more 2-year-olds to step out in the next month or two.”
“We’ve got a nice team of yearlings starting to filter through now and a few more 2-year-olds to step out in the next month or two.” – Michael Freedman
Exhibition was originally purchased by James Bester for $80,000 out of Coolmore’s draft at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale and was subsequently offered at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale.
He was in Hallmark Stud’s draft and failed to meet his NZ$100,000 reserve so returned to Australia and is now raced by a Coolmore syndicate.
Vancouver, sire of Exhibition | Standing at Coolmore Australia
“He was a NZ$75,000 pass in at Karaka so I’m glad I had a chat to Coolmore about him after the sale,” Freedman said.
Exhibition is a half-brother to the G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Japonisme (Choisir) and they are out of Haiku (Encosta De Lago).
She is a half-sister to the G1 New Zealand Oaks winner Tapildo (NZ) (Rhythm {USA}), who also won the Listed Raffles Cup in Singapore.
