“It was a tough day. I’m not really an emotional person – I don’t think many horse trainers are – but it was an emotional day. You have to keep moving forward and life goes on, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“If there is a heaven, I’m sure he’s already having a punt.”

The pair became close when Kavanagh, the son of Flemington trainer Mark, was rebuilding his training career at Muswellbrook following a four-and-a-half year ban after cobalt and caffeine were found in a sample taken from Midsummer Sun in 2015. The fallout from the saga included Kavanagh’s estrangement from his parents.

“A few people at the time said, are you sure you want to align yourself with Sam?” Freedman said.

“But I ignored them, and anyone who spent the time to get to know Sam, he was impossible not to like.

“He was an eternal optimist. Three days before he passed, he was talking about going to Magic Millions. He knew how he was going to restart his stable.

“He had stage four cancer for almost 12 months, and he was still trying to figure out how he was going to get back to the top of his game.”

Kavanagh had nominations for this week, but they did not accept, meaning his last runner – Sharpen The Knives at Armidale on December 8 – was a winner.

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“He would have wanted it that way, his last horse to be a winner,” Freedman said.

“He loved winning … it got crunched as well, so I’d say he wouldn’t have been shy on having a punt on it either, so even better.”

The Freedman-trained Cold Brew was second to Lough Eske in the Vale Sam Kavanagh maiden at Newcastle on Thursday.

A GoFundMe page set up for Kavanagh’s fiancée, Kelly Fawcett, and their daughter, Sienna, 11, has raised more than $57,000.

Freedman has one likely runner, Elettrica, at Randwick on Saturday.

“She’s just had a bit of a freshen up. It’s a bit of a prep run,” he said.

“She’s being aimed at the Wyong Belle Of The Turf, but she’ll have a run over 1400. She’s there to win, but the grand final is 10 days later.”