Alpine Edge to skip Ming Dynasty for Doomben run

Talented colt Alpine Edge

Arguably Queensland’s top juvenile Alpine Edge is set to line up on Saturday at Doomben despite being nominated in the Group 3 Ming Dynasty Quality at Kembla Grange as well.

The son of Better Than Ready has won three of his five career starts, winning the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes on debut, then taking out the Group 3 BJ McLachlan Stakes, before finishing runner-up in the $2m Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic.

The Toby & Trent Edmonds-trained colt resumed with an impressive victory on July 31 at Eagle Farm over 1200m and looks likely to step out again at Doomben over the same distance in a 3YO Plate, rather than tackling some more black-type races south of the border.

“Initially we were sort of thinking the Ming Dynasty was close to be locked in,” Trent Edmonds told SEN Track on Tuesday.

“And with the bad weather forecast and obviously then getting 61kg, we were a bit thrown by that.

“He’s gonna get about 58 here at home and it’s just an hour up the road, so that might be wise to keep him at home for this week.”

It will have been nearly a month between runs when he lines up on Saturday, with Edmonds saying that they have ramped up his training over the past fortnight.

“He had a good, solid exhibition gallop at home at the Gold Coast on Saturday and went through his paces beautifully,” he said.

“Zac Lloyd rode him and I thought he worked pretty stylishly to be fair.

“Then this morning we just kept him ticking over on the B-grass here with a short, sharp gallop and that’ll see him through to Saturday.

“He’s in really good nick.”

Alpine Edge holds nominations for three Group 1 races this spring – the Golden Rose (September 25), Caulfield Guineas (October 9) and Cox Plate (October 23) – so a trip south does beckon in the near future.

“That’s the goal – either Sydney or Melbourne,” he said.

“We’ve just gotta see where he sits and I suppose, Saturday if we stay here, we’re going to get a pretty good read on that.

“(Rob) Heathcote’s horse, Prince Of Boom, who won the Spirit Of Boom Classic at his second start, is going to line up in the race as well, so two pretty talented Queenslanders are going to go head-to-head and as I said, we’ll get a pretty good line on him.

“We do want to take him inter-state, obviously away from carnival time, there’s no real races left up here for him, but we want to dip the toe in the water down there.

“If he’s good enough, he’ll stay on. If not, we freshen up and come back for the summer period and Magic Millions Day.”

Alpine Edge is currently a $34 chance in the Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas, while he is twice that much in the Cox Plate market at $71.

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