Thurston purchased Freedom Is as a yearling from New Zealand and trained her from his Forbes base for three years, earning more than $90,000 in prizemoney over two seasons.

Recently he decided to send the mare to Goulburn’s David Hewitt, once the task of travelling her to Menangle and back became too taxing.

“She has always shown ability and it was getting too hard to keep taking her down there all the time and expecting her to run well, so I sent her to David,” Thurston said.

“He’s at Goulburn so it’s not that far for him to go down there and race her and he’s pretty close to a few other tracks as well.

“It was hard to give up training her but then you look at what she’s done today, she’s won a Group race, and you realise it was the right decision,” he said after Sunday’s win.

“It panned out well because she was a bit flat from the travel the other night but she was able to stay at my place in between the heat and final, so it was only a short run up from Forbes for her to race.”

Punters found the Red Ochre a hard race to figure out, with Freedom Is and Hi Its Only Me battling for favouritism off the back of good heat runs on Wednesday night.

Freedom Is only managed to finish second in her qualifier, but with the benefit of that run she proved to be the class mare when it counted.

There was drama right from the start of the race when Riverina raider Barrietta’s Bliss broke and tailed out.

Up front it was left to My Whiskey Lullaby ($11.30, Josh Willick) to assume the front with Hi Its Only Me ($3.00 eq fav, Ashlee Siejka) parked in the death seat.

Freedom Is found the perfect spot trailing Hi It’s Only Me, and that is how the pattern remained for the bulk of the race.

The only real move came from Forbes-driven mare, The Wife’s Calling ($32.70, Murray Sullivan) who hooked three wide with a lap remaining, leading up a train that included Chevals Charette and Barrietta’s Bliss, however they never really got into the race.

Despite being pocketed for a short while, Hewitt was able to get clear running room prior to the home turn and from that point the race turned into a battle between the two favourites, with OK Alright ($39.60, Michael Day) the only runner looming from behind.

On the line Freedom Is had 3.1 metres to spare from Hi It’s Only Me, with OK Alright a further 0.3m away in third place.

“She’s a nice mare,” Hewitt said after the race. “Her record shows she has always been handy but she’s been unlucky this season not to have won three or four races.

“To get a Group win with her is great, and to get it on a country track is even better because the atmosphere is great. We’re country people as well, and Phil doesn’t live far from here so it’s been a really special win.”

Phil Thurston said it was tough to part company with Freedom Is after two busy years travelling around NSW, Victoria and Queensland with the mare as a 2yo and 3yo.

“It’s been a really enjoyable experience in that respect, because I enjoyed training her myself so much, but sometimes it just makes sense to do that [send a horse to other stables],” he said.

“It’s only been in recent months that we decided to send her away to David Hewitt, so she can race at Menangle week-in and week-out.

“But David is an excellent trainer and Brad [Hewitt] is an excellent driver. They’re both outstanding horsemen and I’ve had horses with people all over Australia and they’re as good as you can get,” he said.

Freedom Is will now contest a $10,000 heat of the Menangle Country series at Cootamunda this Sunday. A good performance would earn her a start in the $20,000 final at harness racing headquarters.

Thurston said she has already shown stamina, backing up successfully several times after just four days of rest.

“She has a very good record of doing that,” he said.

- Daily ­Liberal and Forbes ­Advocate.