Astute horseman Richard Freedman has needed to call on all of his knowledge to work out the idiosyncrasies of French import Auvray to get him back into the winner's circle after three years and is confident the gelding's good form can continue at Rosehill on Saturday.
The son of Le Havre was imported to Australia after a Group II victory in France over 3000m in 2014 but failed to record a victory for two well-respected stables in eight subsequent starts in Australia before being transferred to Freedman.
After six unplaced runs for Freedman, Auvray broke through for his first win and backed it up with an excellent closing performance to finish second in the Group III Newcastle Cup (2300m) on September 15.
"He's been a serious puzzle to work out and we're only just getting there with him now," Freedman said.
"He's put in two good runs, and everyone thought the first one might be an aberration but then the second time they thought he might really be back.
"I've spent a lifetime with horses and it's just been a matter of observing him over a period of time and trying to work out what's missing."
For Freedman to move forward with the horse, he had to take a look back at the gelding's past when formally trained by Élie Lellouche in France.
"He just needs to be worked harder than your average Australian horse," Freedman said.
"A lot of horses from Europe, whether it be France or England or Ireland are used to working a lot longer in a day than we work them here.
"The intensity might not always be high but the duration is always long.
"It's difficult to do that under typical Australian training conditions. He was never going to reach that level on the normal fitness regime.
"I'll work him twice in a morning sometimes, sometimes work him morning and afternoon and use interval training.
"Doing those sorts of things, just keeping the level of work up to him that he needs to get fit is tricky because we're not geared towards doing that here.
"He's turned a bit of a corner I think.
"I reckon another 20m at Newcastle and he wins."
.@GaiWaterhouse1 claims her fourth #Newcastle Gold Cup, with Broadside leading all the way! pic.twitter.com/zhCVpIPXir
— Sky Racing (@SkyRacingAU) 15 September 2017
Auvray finished strongly in the Group III Newcastle Cup
Freedman has been on fire with his small team at Rosehill with five winners and four placings from his past 12 starters and is confident Auvray will run another big race on Saturday in the Colin Stephen Quality (2400m).
"I've got a few nice horses coming along, not enough of them though. Some very nice ones but there's room in the inn that's for sure," he said.
Auvray is second-favourite at $3.40 with Luxbet behind Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's Broadside at $2.10.
