Queensland-based harness racing trainer John Edmunds didn't take long to find his feet and put a score on the board during a Victorian winter campaign.
Edmunds prepares a team of both pacers and trotters for enthusiastic owner Tony Veivers at a property at Willowbank, a suburb of Ipswich, 45 minutes west of Brisbane.
"We decided a while ago to head to Victoria and try our luck with a nice team of five horses," Edmunds said.
"There's not a time frame on how long we are away – we'll just see how it goes and sort of play it by ear," he said.
Edmunds was successful with five-year-old mare Dolly Mach Lombo (Mach Three-Dolly Bird Lombo (Astreos) in the Let's Do Coffee and Catering Pace at Echuca on Tuesday night. And it could easily have been a double, with his other runner in Idealagain NZ going down by a whisker in the Auto Body and Repairs Pace. The two horses were driven by crack reinsman Greg Sugars.
"Both of them are handy horses and should continue to be prominent. Their companions are three square gaiters – Lavros Texas, Spud and Patsdelight, who should also be thereabouts," Edmunds said.
"Patsdelight has plenty of talent and was probably the main one, but she hasn't settled in all that well," he said.
"The plan is to sell them if we can. Tony told me most of them were on a one-way ticket, but we'll see what plays out."
Edmunds said he'd been around horses "forever" as his dad Stanley was active in breeding.
"I started working them for him when I was still at High School. I was probably 15 or 16 years old," he said.
"One of my first trips travelling down to Victoria was years ago with the late Clarrie Sweeney. We spent a month at the property of Ted Demmler and had a ball.
"Another time I campaigned in Victoria probably about 20 years ago. I had a horse named Johns Dancer, who was good in his day. We ran fourth in the Bendigo Cup."
Edmunds was thrilled to run third with gelding Spud in the Dja Dja Wurrung Trotters Cup at the Charlton meeting hosted by Bendigo on Sunday night.
"Spud was the nickname of my father and I guess that was the reason behind buying the horse. He's consistent and has won 15 races with a heap of placings," he said.
"Our season so far has been okay considering we've had a bit of bad luck with some of our runners along the way.
"It's also getting difficult to place your horses with just two main tracks operating at home, in Albion Park and Redcliffe."
Edmunds said he normally trained a team of somewhere around eight racehorses, but there was always half a dozen babies on top of this.
"In addition, we usually get probably six or seven mares in foal each year – so there's always plenty to do," he said.
Terry Gange
NewsAlert PR Mildura
P 0498 490 672
W www.newsalertpr.com.au