KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - Former star Sydney jockey Corey Brown is approaching his appointment as a stable rider for Lee Freedman as the start of a new chapter in his career with the potential to enable him to become the premier rider in Melbourne.
Debutant 2-year-old Spring Drinks this week
kicked off Brown's association with Freedman in the perfect way with a win in the Werribee Summer Plate (1100m) at the Victoria Racing Club meeting at Werribee.
With only three runners in the race, Brown was back last on Spring Drinks most of the way but had her opposition covered soon after turning for home, racing on to score by four lengths from The Clown.
"It's very nice to have my first ride since making the move and win," Brown said. "It is a big bonus. I'm very excited and a little bit relieved. It wasn't a big race but it was still the first one."
Brown, 30, has been familiarising himself with the Freedman stable for the past two weeks and wants to put a dramatic year, which included a six-month suspension in Hong Kong after a trace of cocaine was detected in his system, behind him.
"The six months was very tough," Brown said.
"The toughest part was coming back and wondering how I was going to be accepted, but I had a lot of support from trainers and owners.
"Over the cup carnival I copped heaps from the crowd, but you have got to take the good with the bad."
Brown was a regular rider for the John Hawkes stable and won the 2001-02 Sydney premiership with 106 winners. But when Freedman approached him about the possibility of joining his stable, he jumped at the opportunity.
"For him to give me the opportunity is a big thing for me, especially at this stage of my career after all that has been going on in the last 12 months," Brown said.
"I was stoked to get it.
"There was no guarantee that I would be number one jockey but as long as I am there I will get rides and I am happy to go wherever Lee wants me to go."
Brown said he would work four or five days a week at Freedman's Rye stable and at the stable's revamped centre for 2-year-olds, nearby Denistoun Park, managed by Freedman's brother Anthony.
"My first ambition is to ride winners in Melbourne and get as many as possible later on," Brown said.
"I know people say you get nothing for winning the premiership, but for me it would be a big thing."
Brown and Freedman have celebrated four previous wins together while Brown's Melbourne record includes Group One wins on Exceed And Excel in the 2003 Dubai Racing Club Cup and 2004 Newmarket Handicap. He also finished second in the Melbourne Cup on Mr Prudent in 2002 as well as third on dead-heater Lahar in 1999.
- AAP