Plenty of commentary has come out surrounding Ben Melham’s ride on Skybird in the Gilgai Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Saturday, which resulted in a $2,000 fine for the gun hoop.

Melham pulled the mare up before the finishing post and was nearly run down by Smooth Chino.

But arguably no opinion matters more than the trainer on this predicament.

Skybird’s trainer, Mitch Freedman, admitted Melham’s finish on the six-year-old frightened him, but praised the jock for a brilliant ride prior to that scare.

“Yeah, of course he did (give me a heart attack),” Freedman admitted on RSN’s Correct Weight.

“But what a brilliant ride through the first sort of 95% of it.

“If you look at it like a footy game, it’s the bloke that's had 40 odd touches and kicked five goals, and then turned it over in the backline, and the opposition team kicked the winning goal near the siren.

“But it was a terrific ride through the early stages, he got into all the right spots that we wanted to and she let rip.

“I'm sure that he'll take his learnings from that but what a brilliant ride through majority of the race.”

The trainer even stated he wasn’t surprised his mare came to a halt the way she did after Melham eased her up, revealing she has a huge handbrake.

“If you watch it again and watch closely, he certainly didn't get to the bottom of her,” Freedman continued.

“She's got a big handbrake on her, even in her track work, and when she finishes, she pretty much comes back to a walk and stops still.

“So, no surprise that she did stop like that when he eased off the accelerator.”