Malaguerra continued his winning run with first up victory in the Listed $120,000 ATA/Bob Hoysted Handicap (1000m) at Flemington today.

The Lee and Anthony Freedman trained Malaguerra scored his fifth win from his last six starts and will now head to Sydney before embarking on a Brisbane Winter Carnival campaign.

“He certainly has made big inroads since he was gelded,” Lee Freedman said.

“In his last prep he won four out of five, got beaten a nose in the other one and he’s won first up today so he’s won five out of his last six since he’s been gelded.

“And he stepped up to a Listed race today which is great.”

“Probably off to Sydney to run in the Sebring Stakes in about three weeks and then we will see what happens in Sydney.”

“But Brisbane is my main focus with him.”

Winning jockey Ben Melham settled Malaguerra ($4.40 favourite) back in the field which came down the centre of the Flemington straight and switched back to the inside before running away to score a convincing one and three quarters lengths win over outsider Grane ($41) with Thermal Current ($13) running on for third.

Bob Hoysted Handicap Results

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	3	MALAGUERRA	Lee & Anthony Freedman	Ben Melham	–	3	54.5kg	$4.40F
2	8	GRANE	Robbie Griffiths	Jye McNeil (a)	1.75L	6	54kg	$41
3	6	THERMAL CURRENT	Peter G Moody	Damian Lane	1.95L	7	54kg	$13
4	2	MISS PROMISCUITY	David Hayes & Tom Dabernig	Nicholas Hall	2.15L	11	55kg	$10
5	12	BEAU RADA	John McArdle	Daniel Stackhouse	3.15L	4	54kg	$17
6	11	BULLPIT	Danny O’Brien	James Winks	3.35L	5	54kg	$11
7	1	LUMOSTY	Robert Smerdon	Mark Zahra	3.65L	8	58kg	$4.60
8	4	HEADWATER	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Dwayne Dunn	3.75L	10	54kg	$4.60
9	10	CASHED	Ryan Balfour	Craig Newitt	4.05L	9	54kg	$26
10	7	GENERAL JACKSON	Pat Carey	Patrick Moloney (a)	5.8L	2	54kg	$51
11	5	TAWTEEN	David Hayes & Tom Dabernig	Stephen Baster	8.3L	1	54kg	$18