Racing
Wyong Wednesday: McMurray eyes dream start to latest Sydney stint
A wiser Jace McMurray is keen to make the perfect start to his second stint in Sydney with the Michael Freedman stable when he heads to Wyong on Wednesday for one ride.
And Freedman has handed the 19-year-old apprentice a prime opportunity to hit the ground running with the ride on Godolphin filly Daphnes in the Magic Millions Digital Handicap (1350m).
It's been five months since McMurray wrapped his first foray into Sydney racing and in that time he's reduced his claim to 2kg in the city and 1.5kg at the provincials so he feels he's bringing some momentum with him.
"It was always my intention after the spring carnival to come back down,'' he said.
"I hit a bit of a flat spot coming into the spring, it was always going to be hard even if I was riding a lot of winners with the Everest Carnival coming up.
"Michael came up with the idea to go to his satellite stable to get the confidence up and to keep improving knowing the claim was going to come down a bit.
"This week I'm trying to get my name back out there for the weeks ahead."
The Freedman stable boasts the strongest strike rate in the metropolitan area so far this season and McMurray said he can only hope he can get on that bandwagon.
"There are a lot of nice young horses coming through and a couple of older ones that might need a bit of a claim off in the metro area so hopefully I can get some good chances,'' he said.
"It's good when the whole team is confident going to the race with one and it'd be nice to get on a roll."
Daphnes was a beaten favourite at her first start for Freedman back on November 14 at Canterbury and she was installed a clear $2.50 elect with TAB for Wednesday's race.
In that first-up assignment she looked to travel well coming to the turn but appeared to be outsprinted early in the straight before pulling some late ground to be beaten 1-3/4 lengths by Namaste.
While he hasn't had the chance to ride the three-year-old as yet McMurray said it's clear she has the talent to be hard to beat.
"She's come back in grade a fair way and I think she's starting to get out to the distance she wants,'' McMurray said.
"I don't get many good barriers so it was good to see barrier one which makes life a bit easier.
"When she gets deeper into her prep she'll be a nice filly."
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