It’s been a big week for Bruce and Vicki Edward, and it has come smack bang at the end of a big season.
Today new life reinvigorated their Durham Park farm, on Ballarat’s outskirts, when their new crop of yearlings arrived at the farm, which has been in a state of rebuild since being razed by fire last December.
Their arrival, less than a month after mares returned to the property, signal a significant milestone and comes just days after the Edwards were anointed Woodlands Park Victorian Breeder of the Year.
“It’s a bit of a boost up,” Mr Edward said of the award. “It has been a year of highs and lows and this is definitely one of the highs.”
The honour was announced at Harness Breeders Victoria’s awards on Saturday night, when the 2015-16 season was celebrated. They put something of a full stop on a season Mr Edward won’t soon forget.
“We had the big fire the week before Christmas, which was basically a wipe out,” he said, reflecting on the December 19 blaze that destroyed fencing, stables and their Durham house. “The remarkable thing was every horse survived, I have no idea how.
“Alabar was very helpful, because all of our horses were sent up there. The fences are all done, the stables are built and we are getting there. It’s been an enormous amount of work.”
While on some levels, the Edwards are starting again, the reality is they’ve come a long way in a relatively short time since having their first taste of the trots a decade ago.
“I bought a couple of horses with David Murphy as part of a syndicate about 10 years ago,” Mr Edward said. “I had the farm, it was an interest and a hobby and I was heading towards retirement. I had no family in harness racing or deep-seated links, but I had an extensive background in agricultural breeding.”
And so from that modest start his interest bloomed.
“I bought a handful of cheap mares to basically learn with and then I decided to get into the filly aspect of it,” Mr Edward said. “I bought them as young fillies and raced them with the aim of them becoming broodmares.
“I bought 14 or 15 US mares over three or four years and half a dozen from New Zealand. Our issue was our mares, nobody knew them, so we had to be patient at the sales and wait for them to perform.”
And perform they did, no more than this year when Petacular, by Somebeachsomewhere out of Ideal Priority, dominated two-year-old fillies ranks and Ideal For Real was a force among the four-year-olds and looks destined for Grand Circuit success.
Both were babies from the Edwards’ breeding barn and led to them being awarded breeder of the year.
“I certainly was not expecting the award. We are a relatively new on the breeding scene and I’m sure that are many others more experienced and with many winners.
“I keep track of all of the (foals as they go on). I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t love it. This is the exciting part of the year, we have had our first foals and I am very excited.
“It’s been a tough year, but we are getting noticed now and the top trainers are buying our horses, including Mark Purdon, Clayton Tonkin and Andy Gath.”
But it’s not just those big names in Edwards’ aim.
“We have a slightly different outlook, our slogan is we have a yearling for everyone,” he said. “We like to have sales toppers, but to also get quality yearlings who can be serviced by cheaper stallions and sell for less, and to be honest a lot of those are the horses who have performed very well.”
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