It’s been a decade since Jamie Edwards retired the best horse he’s ever trained.
Sertorius won 10 races and $1.3 million in prizemoney. As well as wins in the Zipping Classic, Bendigo Cup and Easter Cup, he gave the Geelong horseman a maiden Melbourne Cup runner and was placed at the highest level twice.
Edwards, a Group 1-winning trainer, has patiently searched for his next top-liner ever since, for the most part without much joy.
There have been plenty of good servants of the stable – Prince Ziggy won 12 races, and Severn Road was an 11-time winner, while Macrobius, Kawabata and Come Along Jeffrey all won eight – but none that have taken Edwards and his family back to racing’s biggest stages.
Edwards admits that his biggest challenge is economic.
While he would love to spend up at the yearling sales, he chooses to run a tight ship and operate within his means. And when an offer comes in for a young horse showing promise, like it did for debut Benalla Maiden winner Tex Mex a couple of seasons ago, he finds it hard not to take the money.
Tex Mex became Helios Express, who is a regular Group 1 performer in Hong Kong.
In a sport in which emotions run high, rarely does Edwards’ heart trump his head and it’s part of the reason why he’s been able to continue to operate a profitable business in the modern era of the mega-stable.
“I’m just not competitive at the sales,” Edwards said.
“You’re always questioning your business to make sure things make sense – if I’m spending $200,000 a year at the yearling sales and our horses are earning $700,000 or $800,000 in prizemoney, they’re earning three or four times what we’re spending.”
“Is that relative for trainers that are spending $10 million? Because most of them aren’t earning $30 million or $40 million in prizemoney.”
“My business, which I have to maintain, is very achievable if I’m sticking to that and spending $150,000 to $200,000 and earning $700,000 or $800,000, we can keep our doors open because I’m not putting a noose around my neck by overspending.”
“All of a sudden, if I start spending $1 million and I’m still only earning $1.5 million in prizemoney, then I’ll go broke.”
“There are a lot of trainers out there that are living on credit.”
“Outwardly, you look at them and think ‘wow, they’re flying and look at these races they’re winning’ but they’re spending just as much money as they’re making.”
“With the budget I’ve got, I can’t afford to buy the horses I want to find the next Sertorius.”
While it isn’t quite the Melbourne Cup, Edwards is excited about the prospect of chasing a feature win in Sunday’s $300,000 Jericho Cup over 4600m at Warrnambool with hardy stayer Reddivo.
The son of Redwood is far from a headliner but what he lacks in class, he makes up for in grit and determination. A Kiwi-bred gelding that pins his ears back and has a crack most times he races, he is every bit Bill The Bastard and the other plain war horses the marathon staying race is based upon.
Reddivo was set to line up as one of the leading contender’s in last year’s Jericho Cup before injury cruelled his campaign but Edwards can’t fault his build up to Sunday’s race, which included a last-start placing in a qualifier at Geelong.
“He’s certainly in the mix,” he said.
“A couple of horses in the race have the advantage that they’ve run in the Jericho before so they’re proven over the distance and that’s probably my biggest query on our horse because we’ve never raced over anything like that trip.”
“But he gives us every impression that he’ll enjoy it.”
“He was meant to go to the race last year but he injured a fetlock when he ran second at The Valley.”
“We were pretty disappointed we couldn’t get him there so from that day we deliberately planned a program to be there this year.”
“Everything has gone exactly to plan and we’ve had no hiccups so he is going into the race as good as he can.”
Sunday is the eighth running of the thoroughbred version of the Jericho Cup, which pays homage to a three-mile race between Australian and New Zealand Light Horsemen through the desert sands during World War 1.
While the caliber of horses tackling the race hardly inspires confidence in racing purists, the concept and links to the ANZACs has seemed to capture the imagination of many, even those outside racing’s bubble.
Edwards is getting a kick out of the many well wishes and questions about Reddivo and his chances.
“It’s quite incredible how much interest there is in this race,” he said.
“Certainly other trainers and owners take note because nobody trains horses to run 4600m so I would get asked twice a week how my Jericho Cup horse is going.”
“The only other time they really say something like that is when they ask about ‘your Melbourne Cup horse’ or ‘your Derby horse’ so it’s obviously a race that has captured people’s attention.”
“It’s fascinating and it makes it a little bit exciting to be a part of it.”
