Sizzling win caps big week
Treble for jockey; trainer has Challenge shot
LORD of Light’s impressive Cooktown Cup win on Saturday capped a big week for North Queensland’s elder statesmen: trainer Ricky Ludwig and jockey Frank Edwards.
The four-year-old gelding’s success qualified him for the $200,000 Country Cups Challenge Final at Doomben next month to give Ludwig, 69, the opportunity for one of the biggest wins of his long training career.
He also gave Edwards, 59, the last leg of a Cooktown treble and his sixth winner of the week after Bank Bank Bank’s success at Cairns last Sunday and a double at
Townsville’s Cluden Park on Tuesday.
“This puts the icing on the cake,” Edwards said.
Edwards was earlier successful on Devil for Mackay trainer John Manzelmann and Tempo for Townsville’s Terry Mcgovern at Cooktown. During the week, Ludwig finalised a deal to sell Bank Bank Bank to Hong Kong interests.
“It’s been a big week,” Ludwig said. “It’s the first time I’ve won the Cooktown Cup and follows on from the Mareeba Cup victory a few weeks ago.
“I’ll send Lord of Light down to my mate’s place at the Sunshine Coast about a week before the race and the wife and I will fly down for the race itself.
“Young apprentice Jasmine Cornish will ride him at Doomben. I’ve known her since she was born. She’s ridden the horse twice at Cluden and she’s going really well since she got her metropolitan licence and she’s got a handy claim.”
Ludwig and Edwards have formed a formidable combination since Ludwig moved from Beaudesert to Malanda on the Atherton Tablelands seven years ago. The pair have a 40 per cent winning strike rate from just under 100 starts. Edwards, born in Port Moresby, grew up on his parent’s New Guinea farm and learnt to ride on farm ponies.
He began an apprenticeship with Darrel Sams in Brisbane at the age of 17 and had his first ride at Kilcoy in September of 1981. His second race ride was a winner at Esk.
Edwards did most of his early riding in the South Burnett area and since has ridden on almost every “seaboard” track from Murwillumbah to Cooktown, with the exception of Gladstone.
Since moving to Townsville 35 years ago, he’s had more than 10,000 race rides for a total of 1043 winners.
Among them are two Port Moresby Cups during trips to his birthplace.
“It’s been a great experience,” Edwards said.
“I’ve ridden some good horses over the years with the best of them probably Petersfield Lad trained by the late Bruce Mclachlan.
“He won a Cleveland Bay Handicap when ridden by Shane Scriven and a heap of races in Brisbane.
“I haven’t ridden a Townsville Cup winner but I did win a North Queensland Amateurs Cup and feature sprint at Townsville as well as five Atherton Cups.”
Edwards’ best week in the saddle was a few years ago when he rode three winners at Mareeba, four at Cluden and four at Atherton.
As well as being one of Queensland’s oldest active jockeys on the provincial and country circuit, he is also one of the tallest at 176cm.
An office worker for the same Townsville company for 35 years, Edwards keeps fit by riding up to 16 horses in track work six days a week at Cluden and rides at 58kg. Married with a nine-year-old daughter, he has for many years been North Queensland jockeys’ representative for the Australian Jockeys Association.