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By Ray Hickson

This winter will prove to be something of a crossroad for promising filly Codetta with trainer Michael Freedman giving her the chance to win her way out of off-season racing.

Trainer Michael Freedman (Pic: Bradley Photos).

An eye-catching first-up performance suggested the three-year-old is in for a fruitful preparation and Freedman hopes she can back it up in the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1100m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

Codetta has won three of her eight starts and recorded her third second placing when she resumed over the same course two weeks ago.

“She clearly really got to the line strongly and ran good sectionals,’’ Freedman said.

“She’s not an overly big and robust filly but she’s finally matured into herself.

“If she was able to come out and go through the grades a little bit she is one we could probably freshen up and have a crack at something in the early spring.”

Freedman elected to keep Codetta to the 1100m second-up saying she wasn’t wound up for her resumption on the back of one barrier trial.

She ran King’s Secret, who opposes her again, to three-quarters of a length as she clocked the meeting’s fastest last 600m of 34.07 (Punter’s Intelligence) and with Jace McMurray’s claim will meet that horse 2kg better at the weights.

“She wasn’t screwed right down for the first-up run the other day, she’s only a slight filly so it wouldn’t be the worst idea to keep her at that distance second-up,’’ he said.

“It was hard not to be impressed by the run. She was a bit slow away, which is a bit unusual for her but Jace said she had her head cocked to the side when the gates opened, so she ended up lobbing a bit further back than we thought.

“Jace has had a sit on her now and hopefully he has a better feel for her. He has his confidence up now, being able to take 3kg off a filly like that makes a big difference.

“A bit of sting out of the ground doesn’t seem to worry her so it looks like a nice option for her albeit a slightly trickier draw than she had the other day.”

The dice will be rolled with Spanish Fox from his wide alley in the Captivant @ Kia Ora Handicap (1300m) with Freedman at least pleased the gelding won’t strike a heavy track.

It’s been a month since his second-up third behind Zealously at Scone and he’s just banking on McMurray having some early luck.

“Three of the last times we’ve accepted with him he’s drawn off the track but we’re going to have to go racing with him,’’ he said.

“Hopefully the track should be a lot better than what we’ve been on. We’re going to have to take our chances from out there and see if he can produce a good ride.”

Freedman has put a line through Aristocrat’s run second-up at Randwick three weeks ago and hopes better conditions can see him run up to his promising debut in the Chandon Handicap (1400m).

The colt worked in blinkers earlier in the week and it wouldn’t surprise Freedman to see him hit the line a lot stronger.

“He was terrific first-up on a soft track, he was just hopeless on that heavy ground last start,’’ he said.

“The comment from Ash Morgan that day was he just couldn’t pick his feet up.

“On a better surface from a good draw he’ll be able to race handier with the blinkers and he could run a pretty decent race.”

Codetta runs second at Rosehill on May 31

Meanwhile, Golden Slipper winner Marhoona is back at Randwick getting ready for her spring campaign which Freedman says at this stage is something of a blank page.

“She’s been doing pre-training up in Scone and came into the stable on Wednesday. She looks great,’’ he said.

“We’ll wait and see how she comes up and map out a bit of a program from there.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Rosehill meeting