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Grey power at Markdel - By Danny Power

As appears on www.thethoroughbred.com.au

I read with interest - on trainer Lee Freedman's website www.freedman.com.au - the story behind promising 2YO filly Maka Ena, an impressive debut winner last Friday night at Moonee Valley.

Freedman rates Maka Ena (B f 2006, Exceed And Excel-Living Spirit, by Hennessy (USA)) one of his better 2YOs, but the trainer said there were times when he doubted the filly would reach her true potential. Maka Ena, a $450,000 Inglis Easter purchase by Sheikh Mohammed's Darley, is a very highly-strung filly who lives on the edge.

Freedman rates the filly alongside Darley's Listed Debutants Stakes (1000m at Caulfield) winner Come Hither (B f 2006, Redoute's Choice-Hanky Panky, by Anabaa (USA)). Both precocious fillies were ready early in the spring, but the more professional, relaxed Come Hither "won the toss" for the trip to Sydney for the first 2YO Stakes race of the season, the Listed Gimcrack Stakes (1000m at Randwick) on October 4. She finished a luckless third behind Our Joan Of Arc.

When Come Hither was warming for her debut run with an easy trial win at Warwick Farm, Maka Ena was trialling the same day (September 22) at Cranbourne. I sat beside Freedman as Maka Ena finished second to the speedy Dancescape, in a trial that Freedman declared was the strongest of the day. His assessment proved correct as Dancescape bounced out to finish second to Noesis in the Listed Inglis Stakes (formerly the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes) over 1000m at Flemington, and then chased home Come Hither in the Debutants.

Freedman spelled the flighty Maka Ena, but he has been constantly concerned about her temperament, until a stroke of fate - a coloured stroke of fate - caused an amazing turnaround. By chance one morning at Markdel, Maka Ena was being led from a pony - the usual process to try and keep her in check - when Freedman noticed a dramatic change in her temperament. The filly trotted beside the pony like a foal beside its mother.

The only difference between that morning and the previous troublesome episodes with Maka Ena was the fact this was a new pony for the filly - a tough, sturdy grey pony. Freedman immediately remembered that Maka Ena's mother, the 2003 Listed VRC Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (1200m at Flemington) winner Living Spirit also was grey (although the bay Maka Ena throws to her bay sire Exceed And Excel). The flashback to life in the paddocks of Swettenham Stud, where Maka Ena was bred and raised, saw Maka Ena a changed filly.

Now her constant companion is the grey pony, so much so, that the pony shared the float with Maka Ena to Moonee Valley. Ånd there is a chance the pampered pony could find himself in Sydney in the autumn, if Maka Ena earns herself a Golden Slipper start. I suspect the Sheikh will find the extra cash to make sure Maka Ena's life remains a happy one.

Ironically, only last week I was in the Hunter Valley when the subject of grey horses was raised. At Vinery Stud, nominations manager Adam White was talking about the stallion Mossman's complete dislike for grey mares - so much so, that he needs to be tricked into mating a grey mare. "We usually bring in another mare (not grey) at the same time, and he gets so confused and worked up, that he forgets that the mare is grey," White said. Sometimes the mare is covered with a blanket to hide her colour.

The opposite attraction to grey mares exists for Testa Rossa. The sight of a grey mare in the breeding shed sees Testa Rossa, almost on his hind legs, eagerly charging at her like a lion after his prey.

Maka Ena's family grey inheritance comes from the stallion Godswalk, who is the sire of Living Spirit's granddam, Sisterhood, won't be seen until late January when she steps out at Caulfield in a Listed Blue Diamond Preview (1000m). The grey pony will be along for the ride to keep his young starlet calm, and Maka Ena will be led to the start by a grey Clerk Of The Course's horse. One wonders what might happen if a couple of Maka Ena's combatants are also grey!

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The Freedman brothers took a decision in 2002 to switch from a metropolitan training regime to a unique environment on the Mornington Peninsula - they built the world-class complex known as Markdel

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