Group 1 wait finally over for Hedley
ORANGE silks emblazoned with a giant, yellow ‘H’ makes Far North businessman Tom Hedley’s growing list of race horses easily recognisable on race tracks across the state.
After Tyzone’s phenomenal win in the Stradbroke Handicap, that H could very well stand for “hope”.
For it is hope that has powered Hedley’s involvement in racing for so long – a four-decade dream of owning a Group 1 winner finally realised as Tyzone surged in the last 100m to win the $350,000 feature by a long head.
And it is the same hope Hedley, who is also the Cairns Jockey Club’s president, believes could have been injected into the local racing industry after the six-year-old gelding’s success at Eagle Farm.
“Winning a Group 1, that’s what we’ve been hoping for my whole life,” Hedley said.
“(Tyzone’s win) gives more people hope.”
Tyzone’s story reads as a dream advert for owning and running racehorses at tracks across North Queensland.
A smart buy by Hedley, Don Scheffler and the team of owners at the 2015 Magic Millions at the Gold Coast, Tyzone linked with Tolga trainer Roy Chillemi and made an instant impression.
He won five of his first seven starts at Townsville – including a $100,000 two-yearold classic in July 2016, then ran fourth at Eagle Farm.
Tyzone had two runs for Lawrie Mayfield-Smith in southeast Queensland, winning at Doomben and a second at the Gold Cost before his return to North Queensland.
He smashed the field at
Gordonvale before another run of dominant performances culminated with victory at Cairns in January, 2018, his only start Cannon Park.
Tyzone joined Toby Edmonds at the Gold Coast soon after, and a win in the BRC Sprint proved the gelding’s mettle.
After finishing second in last year’s Stradbroke Handicap behind Trekking, Edmonds immediately targeted the 2020 edition of arguably the state’s biggest feature.
It’s paid off.
It was the first Group 1 winner for Edmonds, who is in the first season of a training partnership with his son Trent.
Winning jockey Robbie Fradd, a South African who has ridden Group 1 winners around the world, also got his first Group 1 win in the state.
Racing Queensland CEO Brendan Parnell paid tribute to the team behind Tyzone, the likes of Hedley, Scheffler and Chillemi who have put decades into the racing industry, as the Stradbroke was dominated, fittingly, by Queensland horses on Queensland Day.
“It’s a tribute to what the Hedleys have put into racing for decades,” Parnell said.
“Roy, he has been huge for racing in North Queensland throughout his entire career.
“Once we reduced the prizemoney, and with the border closures, that gave more of a chance for Queensland horses like Tyzone to get home, but we still had plenty from overseas and interstate.”
Parnell said it was his hope that Tyzone’s victory, and the changes to prizemoney in the past 18 months, would not only help increase the number of prospective owners across North Queensland, but drive more patrons to the gates when crowds are permitted.