German star joins Freedman stable

The highly rated German galloper Lucas Cranach (pictured) will be prepared for the Melbourne spring carnival by Anthony Freedman.

Lucas Cranach, who has been nominated for the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate (and the intention is to nominate him for the Melbourne Cup), has been bought and syndicated by Luke Murrell and Jamie Lovett of Australian Bloodstock.

Anthony said that his brother Lee – a five-time winning trainer of the Melbourne Cup – will be leave tonight for England to take over the supervision of Lucas Cranach’s preparation while the horse is in quarantine at Newmarket.

“We thought this was the best way to get the horse ready rather than have a fill-in trainer looking after him,” Anthony said.

“Lee will employ a local track rider and the horse will travel to Australia with the rest of the cups horses in around four weeks. He’s a very interesting horse. His record reads well in Germany and he performed very well in his two starts in France.

“When Australian Bloodstock approached us to train him, we had a good look at him and liked what we saw.”

Interestingly, Lucas Cranach is a son of Mamool, the former Godolphin galloper who ran unplaced in Makybe Diva’s first two Cup wins in 2003 (23rd, when $6.50 favourite) and 2004 (7th).

Lucas Cranach, named after a famed German Renaissance painter, was trained by Sascha Smrczek in Dusseldorf. His record reads seven starts for four wins, although it should be five wins but for being disqualified for causing interference when winning a Listed race (2400m) at Lyon in France in May. Before that the horse finished fourth behind Ivory Land in the Group 3 Prix d’Hedouville (2400m) at Longchamp, coming home strongly from last at the 400 metres.

Lucas Cranach’s most important win was in the Group 2 Grosser Preis von lotto Hamburg (2400m) at Hamburg June 26. The horse hasn’t raced since finishing fifth behind Danedream in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin (2400m) at Hoppegarten on July 24, making ground late from last on the turn.

He record shows he has an affinity for firm ground, which is an advantage coming to Australia.

Footnote: This story also appears on the Freedman Racing website.