Patience pays off: Edmonds unleashes ‘all grown-up’ Spicy Martini

Gold Coast trainer Toby Edmonds has an all grown-up Spicy Martini ready to take on the best during the Queensland winter starting with Saturday’s Doomben 10,000.

The Fred Best Stakes winner as a three-year-old 12 months ago, Spicy Martini, returned by winning the Ascot Stakes last month after his owners were forced to be patient with her. The win made her the final horse in the Group 1 field in front of three-year-olds Beadman, who got a start after the injury to Lady Of Camelot, and Napoleonic.

Spicy Martini had a short Sydney campaign in the spring, finishing down the track in the Sheraco Stakes and Silver Eagle, before it became clear she needed a break.

“She just had a couple of niggles and growing pains, so we stopped and she had three months off,” Edmonds said. “She has come back fully mature and all grown-up. That showed in her win first-up where she overcome a poor start.

“She is a Group 3 winner and really we have to look towards the top end of racing up here during the carnival, and at her best I think she can measure up.”

That is not a bad place to be with an $8000 online purchase, which has earned more than $620,000.

“I think the Stradbroke and the Tatts Tiara are probably going to be her best chances to get that Group 1,” Edmonds said. “We got to the Stradbroke last year and got put out of the race in the first couple of hundred metres.

“She should get a very competitive weight in it again, but we need to go through these weight-for-age race s to get there.

“It is definitely not beyond her to cause a surprise on the weekend because she has won her only two starts at Doomben, she has got a good gate ans she like a bit of cuit in the ground.”

Spicy Martini is likely to use barrier two to be on speed in the Doomben 10,000, where she is a $31 outsider.

“The only reason she went back first-up was she bungled the start, and she was very strong late,” Edmonds said. “She has the speed to be near the lead and if she shows the same strength as last start at the end, she can give them a scare.”