Girl is Vanna from heaven
IT seems Toby and Trent Edmonds’ lofty assessment of Vanna Girl is shared by market framers, with the Gold Coast mare opening up strongly fancied for Saturday’s Group 2 Tramway Stakes at Randwick.
Team Edmonds have been enamoured with Vanna Girl for some time and their opinion has been shared by jockeys Brad Stewart and Matt McGillivray, both of which have tipped her to make the grade this spring.
Despite the 1400m of the Tramway being short of Vanna Girl’s sweet spot, Ladbrokes opened her a $5 second favourite, behind Dreamforce at $4.80, for the Tramway.
Vanna Girl was scheduled to leave the Gold Coast last night and arrive early this morning in Sydney, where she will be stabled with Peter and Paul Snowden.
Unlike The Candy Man and Niccanova, who are set to have stable changes for their upcoming Sydney assignments, Vanna Girl will remain under the Team Edmonds banner, but the COVID situation does present some challenges.
Trent Edmonds said Vanna Girl would travel with her regular track rider Sebastian Beaulieu, who will oversee the preparation this week.
When Stradbroke winner Tyzone joins the interstate raid next week, it is likely Trent’s father Toby will travel south.
“It’s just one of those things. How long does it go on for?
Nobody knows at the moment, but I would say Dad will go down next week,” Trent said.
“We have had this plan for some time and we have known for the past month what the horses were doing.
“The only thing we sorted late last week was whether one of us would go for the first run. It’s been pretty smooth sailing otherwise.”
Queensland has high hopes for the spring carnival with Group 1 winners Alligator Blood and Rothfire heading the list, but several good judges believe Vanna Girl can also make her presence felt. The daughter of Husson has won seven of 10 starts, including the last three at stakes level.
She holds a nomination for the Cox Plate, but Edmonds says no plans have been made beyond Sydney.
“You just want to see her compete at that level and confirm what we hope – that she is good enough,” he said.