Timely reminder for Edmonds’ training ability after landing Missile
Trent Edmonds never lost faith in he and his father Toby’s ability to train horses but Saturday’s shock Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) victory by Hard Empire (Hard Spun) helped remind the wider racing public that the Gold Coast-based pair know what they’re doing when they have the right stock.
Soon after the nine-year-old gelding upset the likes of Group 1 winners Forbidden Love (All Too Hard), Nimalee (So You Think) and $2.6 million earner Count De Rupee (Real Impact) as well as Kris Lees’ trio Wandabaa (Wandjina), Gem Song (Your Song) and Enchanted Heart (Shamus Award), Trent posted on social media: “We haven’t forgotten how to train … just had a rough trot … that felt gooooood!!”
Reflecting on the stable’s confidence-boosting Group 2 win at Randwick, Edmonds yesterday opened up about the seemingly innocuous “tongue-in-cheek” Twitter post in the immediate afterglow of the new season success.
“I listened to a podcast with a trainer in England, Mark Johnston, talking about similar type things when people fell off the wagon of his a bit and he’s gone on to become the winning-most trainer in Britain,” Trent Edmonds told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He went to the press and said something and things started turning his way. That’s basically why I did that (Twitter post), a bit of a reminder that we’re still here, we still know what we’re doing but we’ve just had a bit of a rough trot.
“Whether we bought the wrong horses at the sales the past couple of years or not, that has a bearing on things. It’s a patience game, you’ve got to wait and see and keep turning up.”
The landscape has changed dramatically in the more than six years since Edmonds Racing went to the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, purchasing four yearlings for a combined $695,000.
The sale reaped the stable the following year’s $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Houtzen (I Am Invincible) ($105,000), Group 3-winning three-year-old sprinter Eptimum (Snitzel) ($200,000) and dual Listed-winning sprinter Whypeeo (I Am Invincible) ($200,000 bought by Blue Sky Bloodstock).
“That was in 2016 at Magic Millions and the growth of (the market) in the past six years, I personally think – and I wouldn’t be alone in saying this – it is becoming a little bit unachievable for the average Australian to try and buy into these horses,” he said.
“Hopefully at some stage there’s a bit of a market correction because prices are through the roof and I suppose it’s all commensurate with prize-money increases and all that kind of stuff, but it’s sometimes hard to justify going out to spend a stack of money and then trying to push them onto people because you’ve gone and paid $300,000 for a horse.
“Trying to get the mum and dad owners, who are the majority of people we train for, to stump up $30,000 for ten per cent of a horse because that’s basically the going rate, it can be difficult.”
As Houtzen and company were showing their wares on racecourses in their home state and further afield, along with the tried horses of which Edmonds Racing built their brand, interstate trainers were also moving in on the Queensland segment of the Australian industry and the competition for horses – and owners – intensified.
Champion Sydney trainer Chris Waller opened a satellite stable on the Gold Coast 2017 and since then it has been seen as a destination for fellow trainers to expand their businesses, such as the now Dubai-based Michael Costa and, more recently, prominent trainer Annabel Neasham.
It’s far from doom and gloom, though, for the Gold Coast father-and-son team. Toby Edmonds trained 25 stakes winners during his career, prior to officially bringing his son into the partnership in 2019, with the duo combining to win a further 15 stakes winners, including 2020 Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Tyzone (Written Tycoon).
Hard Empire – a horse who started his career in Tasmania with trainer Adam Trinder before joining Darren Weir and subsequently Richard and Chantelle Jolly ahead of finding his way to the Edmonds’ – has certainly demonstrated the stable’s versatility, winning three races with the sprinter, including a victory over Aquis Farm’s Group 1-winning sire Jonker (Spirit Of Boom) in the 2020 George Moore Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).
“Charles White, who is the managing owner, rang my old man with the view of wanting to have a crack at the Magic Millions series with him. Richard and Chantelle Jolly had him and they brought him up here earlier that year (2020) and he ran sixth in the Magic Millions Sprint,” Edmonds said.
“He won first-up for us on Melbourne Cup day in 2020 and then he won the George Moore a couple of starts after that. That’s how it came about, our luck with tried horses, and (the owners) wanting to have a go at the Magic Millions carnival.”
While Edmonds is mindful of Hard Empire’s age, the 44-start veteran and winner of $732,130 in prize-money could race on this preparation interstate, having resumed with a luckless run in the Ramornie (Listed, 1200m) at Grafton in mid-July.
“He’ll come back and spend a week in the paddock and then we’ll consider a similar sort of race. We won’t shoot for the stars, he’s nine years old, but whether that’s Sydney or Melbourne, we’re unsure at this stage,” the trainer said.
“There’s good prize-money for him to win if he can continue on.”
The Gerry Harvey-owned four-year-old mare Me Me Lagarde (Star Turn), a winner of the Gold Edition (Listed, 1200m) at Eagle Farm last December, could accompany Hard Empire on the trip south.
Me Me Lagarde has not raced since April, her only run in the autumn, when unplaced at Randwick.
“We didn’t see the best of her in the PJ Bell (when ninth). That was probably a trainer error there. It was a really wet autumn in Sydney, and a wet 12 months basically, and it was a bottomless track that day,” Edmonds recalled.
“We took her down there against her own age and sex thinking that she would measure up, but she didn’t handle the bog, so she is one who will get on the float, whether it’s Sydney or Melbourne, in the next couple of months, for sure.”