Jockey delighted as ‘nice horse’ elevated to Magic Millions second favourite

Both trainer are jockey are delighted with the progress of improving colt Alpine Edge as he takes firm aim at the upcoming Magic Millions 2YO Classic.

Alpine Edge ridden by Robbie Fradd wins the BJ McLachlan Stakes at Eagle Farm. Picture: Trackside Photography

TOBY Edmonds won a Magic Millions with a fleet-footed front running filly four years ago but this year’s stable aspirant Alpine Edge will be nowhere near the lead and that’s how the trainer wants it.

The Magic Millions was turned on its head when early favourite Shaquero flopped badly as the Toby and Trent Edmonds trained Alpine Edge finished the best to take out the B.J. McLachlan Stakes at Eagle Farm yesterday.

Alpine Edge is now poised to emulate Edmonds’ 2017 Magic Millions winner Houtzen on the Gold Coast.

He won on debut at Eagle Farm a fortnight earlier when setting the pace and wanting to wander around.

Yesterday Robbie Fradd allowed him to find his feet early before the son of Better Than Ready put his mind on the job in the straight and wore down Baby Wong.

“That’s the real horse, not the one you saw the other day,” Edmonds said.

“He’s a far better closer and that’s the way we’ve been training him.”

Alpine Edge was bred by Richard Foster’s Yarramalong Park and was secured for $160,000 by Edmonds in conjunction with Kestral Thoroughbreds and Lucky Clover Thoroughbreds, in which colours the colt races.

“He’s shown above average ability from the first time we stepped on him,” Edmonds said.

“He’s very laid back and quiet. He just goes out and does his work, very simple to train.”

The camp was confident Alpine Edge would be a big improver yesterday after he pulled up well from the debut win and “towed up” with Jeff Lloyd in the saddle in a track gallop last week.

Fradd cheekily asked whether the Magic Millions favourite was in the field before revealing how good it was for him to find another horse with big race prospects.

“Geez he’s a nice horse. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a nice horse,” he said.

“He switched off immediately, he went straight back, in the straight I didn’t really want to go in, but the run was there.

“Sure, Magic Millions is a different kettle of fish, it’s a high pressure race, but he’s a horse that can overcome that.”

Alpine Edge firmed to be $6 second favourite with Ladbrokes behind Chris Waller’s She’s All Class ($4.40), as her stablemate Shaquero eased to $14 (see jockey Luke Dittman’s comments in The Verdict).

Baby Wong trimmed up to $9 after he very nearly gave Andrew Mallyon a lucky late pick-up Group 3 prize.

Mallyon picked up the ride on the Stephen Jones-trained colt after Luke Dittman switched to Shaquero when it was confirmed that horse would travel up from Sydney.

“He was good - he was just left a sitting duck,” Mallyon said. “We just got there (to the front) too early.”

Owner Neville Morgan was left dismayed with the performance of Shaquero, but he did have success earlier when Kukeracha won the City to Surf Plate (1600m) under Dittman in his colours.

Kukeracha stuck his head out for a narrow victory and Dittman insisted he would have won either way as he would have been confident of claiming victory on protest after runner-up Dzsenifer veered in on him.

“It almost intimidated him out of winning and I’m pretty sure we would have got the result in the stewards’ room if we had come up just short,” Dittman said.

Originally published as Jockey delighted as ‘nice horse’ elevated to Magic Millions second favourite