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Tom Kitten’s co-trainer concerned over “difficult” barrier in Memsie
Connor Scanlon • August 29th, 2025 6:13 pm
Tom Kitten’s co-trainer Sam Freedman has revealed that the Group 1 All-Star Mile winner is raring to go for its first jump out of his Spring Racing Carnival.
While Freedman stated that the five-year-old Gelding is looking “really well”, he admitted that Tom Kitten may struggle this Saturday in the Group 1 Memsie Stakes (1400m) due to its tough barrier draw (4).
“He’s fresh, bouncing around, he looks ready to have a day out at the races tomorrow,” Freedman told SENTrack’s Giddy Up.
“This feels like obviously an extremely difficult edition of the Memsie, particularly given the weather in Sydney over the last couple of weeks.
“Our draw is difficult in the sense that he’s probably not gonna be able to settle close to the speed.
“So, he might be three pairs back somewhere.”
Freedman also pointed out that Ben Melham, who will jockey Tom Kitten on Saturday, won’t ride the superstar too aggressively, first-up.
“Ben will obviously sum it up and see how he begins… We don’t want to ride him out of his comfort zone first-up,” Freedman stated.
“He may well end up three pairs back and hopefully following the right horses like Treasurethe Moment and Fangirl - see if we can get the gap.
“Ben has said he feels (Tom Kitten) might be best on soft ground, but he’s just a good horse that’s seemingly managed everything he’s run on.
“He’ll line up on whatever presents tomorrow."
Despite some variables going in the other direction for Tom Kitten, Freedman exclaimed that he is still a class horse who can take out this Group 1, with a little bit of luck.
“He’ll run very well, he’ll finish strong if he gets the gaps, if he gets the break,” said Freedman.
“He could give it a shake… He’s got the class obviously, he performs well fresh, but he just needs a few things to pan out.
“He’s a proven horse, he’s been expertly managed his whole career so far, so hopefully he can build on that in this chapter.”
When asked about what Tom Kitten’s grand final of this Spring Carnival is, Freedman admitted that the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) is what they’re targeting.
“He’s probably going towards the Cox Plate, that’s his main goal,” revealed Freedman.
“But a lot of that is dependent on obviously what sort of form he’s in.
“So, his first two runs are Memsie (Stakes) and Makybe Diva (Stakes), and then we’ll assess him after that.”
