Virginian gunning for another go at Straddie
GOLD Coast sprinter The Virginian takes an important step to a second attempt to win the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap when he returns to racing at Doomben.
The Virginian will make his much-anticipated return to racing in the Listed Chief De Beers Stakes (1050m) tomorrow.
The four-year-old is an $8 chance, with his stablemate Prompt Return and Hidden Pearl equal favourites at $5.
Trainer Toby Edmonds surprised many when he ran The Virginian in the Stradbroke last year after the gelding won a Gold Coast Class One race at his previous start.
Edmonds had the last laugh when The Virginian ran third in the 1400m Group 1 feature at $101 behind classy interstate sprinters Under the Louvre and Black Heart Bart.
In the spring, Edmonds took The Virginian to Melbourne where he had two starts, finishing just behind the placegetters in Listed company at Caulfield and Flemington.
“He had some knee problems so we brought him home and gave him a good long spell,” Edmonds said.
The Virginian has had two trials in the build-up to his return, winning the most recent at Deagon by three lengths on May 9.
“This will be his first test and he will start wet or fine,” Edmonds said.
“We are keen to get him into the Stradbroke again so he will have to start somewhere.”
The Virginian, a four-yearold by Hinchinbrook, is one of several horses Edmonds trains for well-known breeder Stu Ramsay.
Premiership-leading jockey Jeff Lloyd rode The Virginian in his trials but Jim Byrne will have the ride tomorrow.
Lloyd will ride Edmonds’ other Chief De Beers runner Prompt Return who was a brilliant last-start Gold Coast winner over 900m.
“He broke 32 seconds for the last 600 metres in that win so if does that again he will be hard to beat,” Edmonds said. LESS than two weeks into his new job, Darren Beadman is poised to become just the second person to ride and subsequently train a winner of the Doomben Cup.
It is a feat achieved by the late Maurice McCarten when he trained Tossing to win the 1952 Cup.
A premiership-winning Sydney jockey and trainer, McCarten won the Doomben Cup on Pentheus (1933), Whittingham (1934) and Beaulivre (1940).