Beer & Freedman heading to Rocky for Classic Race & Sales.

News of just how good the Rockhampton Jockey Club’s Classic races, yearling sale, and social events are, has spread far and wide, with Kembla Grange trainer Mitch Beer and Rosehill trainer Will Freedman the latest to be captured by the excitement.

Both likable, jovial, enthusiastic and respected young horseman, Beer and Freedman will be in Rocky for the Classic racing and Sales weekend.

Beer said he heard about the Rockhampton Jockey Club’s Capricornia Yearling Sale and Sale Race weekend while he was at the Gold Coast Magic Million Sales and thought it sounded like a “fun time and something Will and he should do.

“I messaged Will, and he said he was in, so here we are ready to experience Rocky.”

If you follow Mitch on the social feeds, you know he knows how to have a good time.

“This is what we love to do, get to the country races with a few mates, have a drink watch good racing and have a good time, you cannot beat it,” he said.

“It’s about enjoying yourself and enjoying racing, and we should all do that more.”

The trainer said he has had a look at the sales catalogue, and he also just might be in the hunt for a yearling on Sunday. “Why not,” he said. “Will and I may have a competition to see who can get the best yearling to have a runner next year’s race.”

But before then, Beer will be a guest at the RJC at the Calcutta on Friday night at Callaghan Park and, together with Freedman will go racing for the $168,000 Capricornia Yearling Sale Classic on Saturday.

YOUNG GUNS WERE BORN INTO RACING

Commencing training in his own right around a decade ago, Mitch Beer is a trainer on the way up in New South Wales.

He is already having plenty of success from his training base at Kembla Grange and has trained about 260 winners so far.

Beer was born into racing. His father Les was a jockey who rode with success for around 30 years, and he has certainly picked up a lot of family horse skills.

Starting out in the game when he was 16, he worked for Lloyd Williams at Flemington, then became a stable foreman for Russell Cameron also at Flemington before venturing out as an assistant trainer with Jason Warren at Mornington. A lot of top-class horses were in the Warren stable during Beer’s time there but none better than Group 1 winner Bel Sprinter, winner of the 2013 Galaxy at Randwick.
Beer gained his trainers’ licence in November 2015 when he partnered with revered horseman Max Hinton, and the pair enjoyed a great amount of success together before Beer branched out on his own. Seven years ago, he set up stables in Albury before making the move to Kembla Grange in 2023. Two of his best horses recently have included the Flemington and Randwick Listed race winner, the 8yo Mnementh, who has already earned more than $689,000, and I Am Lethal ($312,000). Others include Apollo Mission and November Falls. He has 10 runners engaged this week at Newcastle, Gosford, Goulburn and Queanbeyan.

Will Freedman trains in partnership with his father Richard at Rosehill where they have about 40 horses in work. The Freedman name has been synonymous with Australia’s best races and elite racing for decades. Richard is the youngest of the Freedman brothers who created a dynasty in Australian racing, winning five Melbourne Cups, four Golden Slippers, four Caulfield Cups and two Cox Plates.

Will has been training alongside Richard since 2022, forming Freedman Training.

Before then he was given great grounding in all aspects of the sport. After obtaining a university degree in media, something he still loves to do and he does well, Freedman spent two years overseas on the Godolphin Flying Start program, an outstanding global grounding in horse racing, learning and gaining experience with many leading horse training operations around the world. He returned and started his own training business from scratch at Scone before moving back to Sydney. The Freedman Training of Richard and Will  partnership had their first Group winner this month with Pocketing, raced by Yulong Investments winning the Group 2 Tulloch Stakes at Rosehill on 1 April. They also train the stakes winner Coastwatch who has won just short of $1 million. The stable has nine runners this week including Horizon who shoots for a Stakes win in South Australia and Koning (Orange Gold Cup).

RJC CEO, David Aldred.