Richard Freyer has been remembered as one of best trainers in the history of the Southern District Racing Association.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Freyer died on Monday morning after a long battle with prostate cancer, leaving behind an amazing legacy.
The 69-year-old’s training record in the region is second to none.
Taking over the stables of his father Jack at the age of 24, he trained from the Corowa base for 47 years.
Freyer won 16 straight SDRA premierships during a dominant era in the 1980s and ‘90s.
He prepared the winners of eight Albury Cups, 12 Corowa Cups and 10 Berrigan Cups and claimed every feature race in the SDRA, on multiple occasions, with the exception of the Wagga Gold Cup.
Frustratingly, the Murrumbidgee Turf Club feature was one that always alluded him and Freyer even had one of the his best chances, Leica Larrikin, scratched on the morning of the race in 2010.
Premiership winning jockey Nick Souquet believes he had no peer in the sport.
“At his top he was the best country trainer in Australia,” Souquet said.
“He had lengths on them.
“He was one of the very, very few trainers who could win races with bad horses.
“Any trainer can train a good one but he could train a bad one to win.
“That was his biggest attribute.
“That and he was the best feeder of horses.”
Their relationship started when Souquet was a 12-year-old coming to the Corowa stables and he worked for him for almost two decades.
While Freyer put the polish on some outstanding performers, undoubtedly his best horse was Leica Falcon.
The gelding was thrust into the national spotlight with a luckless fifth in the 2005 Caulfield Cup before finishing fourth behind Makybe Diva in the Melbourne Cup.
Any trainer can train a good one but he could train a bad one to win.
- Nick Souquet on the late Richard Freyer
Freyer trained more than 2500 winners throughout his career, including seven at a Corowa meeting in 1975, and also won a Canberra National Sprint with Prince Tone.
SDRA president Stuart Lamont said Freyer was well respected by everyone in the industry.
Lamont recalled a distinct lack of bravado after all Freyer’s wins.
“I’d describe him as a very modest gentleman,” Lamont said.
“He had enormous success which was really unparalleled through the period where he was training with any sort of numbers.
“To achieve those sort of results was absolutely outstanding and goes to show what a great horseman he was.”
Freyer is survived by daughter Kylie and son Rick.
His funeral will be held at St Johns Corowa at 11am on Saturday.
