It’s been almost 12 months since Jamie Kah declared Fretta a ‘star of the future’ and the daughter of Frankel is building towards her racetrack return before the end of the year.
A 3.5-length winner at Sandown on debut last December, it looked like OTI’s 220,000 guineas (A$425,000) gamble was set to pay off prior to requiring arthroscopic surgery and halting plans earlier this year.
“We gave her a break and we were trying to set her for the Queensland Carnival and she picked up an injury so we had to stop,” Michael Kent Jnr said, who trains the mare in partnership with Mick Price.
“She’s a northern hemisphere bred Frankel filly so she’s six months behind but she is also a big raw type so time has been her friend no doubt and she still has a lot more furnishing to do.
“She’s going great and we are really happy with her.”
Fretta with a dominant debut win in the first at Ladbrokes Park 👊@MickPriceRacing @jamieleekah07 pic.twitter.com/Ph9ZjtJ7Zr
— Racing.com (@Racing) December 21, 2022
Fretta had her second jump out back this campaign over 1200 metres at Cranbourne on Monday finishing second under light riding from Jamie Kah.
“Jamie was tickle pinked with her yesterday,” Kent Jnr said.
“She is a leggy Frankel filly that has a beautiful long stride, she doesn’t have a real turn of foot but she lengthens when she gallops and will come into her own on big tracks over 2000 metres and hopefully further.
“Given her big pedigree I can’t wait to get her out over more ground.
“She won well, she had things in her favour cutting the corner and had a good ride but she won very impressively and was still accelerating on the line.”
One of a number of smart jump out performers for the stable on Monday, including a promising unraced Kiwi named Otago, Kent Jnr said the mare was ready to head to the races but did give out a word of warning.
“She is open to being vulnerable first-up, having had a long break we will probably kick her off short of her best trip and just look to see her hit the line,” her co-trainer said.
“We haven’t been overly hard on her so we will just let the racing bring her on.”
The above is an excerpt from Ben Sporle’s Racing.com article which can be read in full here.