Bedford wins by big margin at Caulfield

The Anthony Freedman-trained Bedford has raced to an impressive victory at Caulfield.

Trainer Anthony Freedman has had an impressive winner at Caulfield but the best-performed horse he brought to the track was not there to race.

The Group One-winning trainer had two starters at Wednesday’s twilight meeting, highlighted by four-year-old Bedford’s six-length win in the Ladbrokes Up For The Challenge (2000m).

Freedman also took the opportunity to bring highly rated Japanese import Ambitious to Caulfield to familiarise him with Australian race days, and with the facilities such as the tie-up stalls and pre-parade rings at Caulfield.

Ambitious boasts a win over Kitasan Black in a Group Two race in Japan in April 2016 among his five wins from 16 starts.

He is building towards an Australian debut which could be in next month’s Futurity Stakes at Caulfield, with Group One options in Melbourne and Sydney for him during the autumn.

“He’s here today. We just wanted to see how he handled the race day in Australia,” Freedman said.

“I just wanted to get him used to everything.

“He’s handled it really well, the heat and the flies.

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“He walked in a few of the (pre-parade) rings.

“He handled the whole day really well.”

Bedford, meanwhile, streeted his rivals in the restricted race which could force Freedman to re-assess where he heads with the four-year-old.

Bedford has won three of his 11 starts, with Wednesday’s victory his first in town.

Ridden by Mark Zahra, Bedford ($4.80) defeated Eureka Street with another short half-head to Silent General third.

“He was impressive,” Freedman said.

“He’s probably surprised us a bit today. We’ll see if we can go to a better race and see how he stacks up.

“Today was a benchmark 70. I thought he was better than that but on that today, with a bit more maturity he might get to a nice level.”