Melbourne Cup winning trainer to retire

Lee Freedman, one of the most decorated figures in Australian racing, has all but conceded he will never train again.

“I think I’ve had enough of the professional horse training side of things,” Freedman told Sky Sports Radio.

However the The Hall of Fame trainer revealed he won’t be lost to the thoroughbred industry because he is on the verge of opening a pre-training and rehabilitation centre.

Freedman plans to run his new business out of Markdel, the family thoroughbred property on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula from which he engineered countless Group One triumphs including two of Makybe Diva‘s three Melbourne Cup wins.

Freedman hasn’t trained at Markdel since handing over the complex’s racing operation to his brother Anthony in August, 2011.

He re-emerged last year as a Sydney-based co-trainer with Graeme Rogerson only to quit the Randwick partnership last month.

Now that his brother has shifted his team to Flemington, Freedman said the timing was right to start a new chapter of his career.

“(Training) is a phase of my life which was extremely successful and very satisfying,” Freedman said.

“But at the same time I’ve run my race doing that at the moment and I think this (move) is a good alternative.

“Admittedly it won’t be the same as training one hundred horses but that’s not what I want at this stage of my life.

“I want to do something that involves horses but not actually training them.”

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