It’s one of my favourite times of the year when the Grafton carnival comes around and we focus on the Ramornie and Grafton cups. Plenty of QLD trainers target the meetings with their stable stars and Toby Edmonds has already had winners over the early part of the carnival so I thought we better catch up with him for an update on his runners this Wednesday and Thursday.
WAR ENDS is the runner Wednesday and that is in the 1200m Ramornie handicap. He does come off a good win in the local lead up race – The J Carlton 1200m where he carried 56.5kg to victory when leading all the way. He drops to 54kg but has an awkward gate this time around. “It was a good win last start. There is a lot of speed in this race so hopefully from the barrier we can sort of get some sort of run somewhere and see what happens in the finish.” Edmonds said.
Thursday sees a bigger team with potentially four runners for team Edmonds.
VIA CON DIAS has always shown potential and Toby has found a nice race for her. “She has trialled a couple of times already on wet tracks, we have been treading water a bit trying to find a decent surface for her and she probably gets that Thursday and she is going pretty good.”
CHIPP’N AWAY was slightly disappointing when he went to Rockhampton but Toby feels he should probably come through that race better for it and he should also run well.
NATURAL DANCER is a filly I am pretty keen to see as she comes off a very nice win at Grafton where she run them a merry dance and run good time. “She jumped to the front, she beat them easy and ran quicker time than the other division. She will back up here but hasn’t drawn very well (10) but she is a natural improver.”
SPOT ON TARGET is entered in my favourite race- The Kirby 1000m dash! It is always the last race of the carnival and the atmosphere is great, usually a few larrikins and scallywags have been ejected by now, but the cheer as they jump in the last is awesome. SPOT ON TARGET does look out of form going into the race and Toby is up in the air if he will run from gate 13, but it is worth noting he holds the track record over this trip so some respect has to be given.
As usual you can find more on Toby and his stable at their website:
