The finale of the Gold Coast Turf Club Trainer Premiership will bring added value to the season ending meeting at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
The stables of the seasoned three-time Premiership winner Toby Edmonds and the up-and-coming Adam Campton, who is only completing his second full season as a trainer, are currently locked together at thirty winners apiece and neither will be holding back as they each go for a last round knockout.
Both have loaded up for the Saturday shootout where they will saddle twenty-one runners between them over the seven-race meeting, which translates to thirty percent of the entire card.
Edmonds holds a marginal upper hand in terms of the number of potential race starters on Saturday (11 to Campton’s 10). The Edmonds stable is engaged in every race whereas Campton has runners in six of the seven races. That could be a telling statistic at the end of the day with Edmonds seemingly having two outstanding chances lining up in a small field in the third race where Campton does not have a runner.
But, as you will see from the following, both stables have chances aplenty and there is a very real possibility that the Gold Coast Trainers’ Premiership might only be decided by the last stride of the last race of the season.
Saturday’s Premiership playbook (as it stands at the time of writing ie before final scratchings on Saturday morning) reads:
Race 1:
Edmonds:
Spirit Of Mac, Procyon Miss – who finished third and second respectively in their last starts. NB these two runners are also entries in race 6.
Campton:
Veloce Meteor: Shed his Maiden ticket two runs back and then finished a close-up second last time.
Race 2:
Edmonds: Ready To Schipp – Unplaced in a trail. Is on debut.
Campton: Upturn – Won trail. Is on debut.
Race 3:
Edmonds: Hollywood Epic – Finished second in all three starts to date. Been A Secret – Finished third and then second in two starts since resuming.
Campton: No runners.
Race 4:
Edmonds: Desert Couger – On debut. Lunar Eight – Unplaced in two starts. Resumes after a five month layoff.
Campton: Flying Astern – On debut after four trials. Flying Ting Lok – Is backing up after finishing a well beaten second last week when on debut.
Race 5:
Edmonds: Clover’s Prince – Second-up, bidding for back-to-back wins.
Campton: Deep Blast – Has finished in the first three in three starts either side of a spell. Caderas – First-up.
Race 6:
Edmonds: Spirit Of Mac, Procyon Miss – who finished third and second respectively in their last starts. NB these two runners are also entries in race 1. Bremers – Won on debut then was unplaced in his second career start.
Campton: Living Free – Close-up, runner-up finish last time when resuming. Euphrates Dream – Sometimes not that far away, but last won in July 2022.
Race 7:
Edmonds: Bauhaus – Has finished second and first in the two runs since joining the stable from the Price/Kent yard. Miss Shu – Finished in the money in her last two starts.
Campton: – Tuqiri – NB No rider declared – Finished third last start. Gregarious – Improved to finish second last time out.
*Should he get the nod in, this would be Edmonds’ fourth Gold Coast Trainer’s Premiership having previous taken out the title in the 2015/16 (with 28 winners), the 2019/20 (with 35 winners) and the 2022/23 seasons (with 29 winners). Should the photo-finish go the other way, this will be Campton’s first Premiership and would be achieved in only his second full season. It should be noted that Toby Edmonds trained in partnership with his son Trent until the end of January 2024).
*Edmonds total of 35 winners in the 2019/20 season is one of only two times in the previous nine years that the Premiership winner has passed thirty winners, which puts the effort of these two trainers reaching thirty winners this season in perspective. The other time that the thirty-winner mark was breached in those nine years was in the 2017/18 season when Les Kelly topped the ladder with 38 winners.
*The record for a number of wins in a season by a trainer at the Gold Coast stands at 44 and it is an honour currently shared by Gillian Heinrich (in 2006/07), Alan Bailey (2001/02) and Gerald Ryan (1999/2000).
