One bid, one filly and a shot at Group 1 glory for Trent Edmonds 

Although he was wrestling with hesitation and doubt, one bid at auction now stands as the most profound moment in Trent Edmonds’ career as a solo racehorse trainer.

But it can play an even more significant role in a potential watershed moment as Edmonds sizes up for a return to racing’s Group 1 theatre for the first time since going out on his own.

Edmonds trains the exciting Extragalactic, a Deep Field filly who is challenging for favouritism in the $1 million Goodwood at Morphettville on Saturday.

The least experienced runner in the famous sprint earned her place in the field with a last-start Group 2 placing in a campaign that has lifted the fortunes of a stable still in a fledgling period and trying to establish a name for itself in Victoria.

As a co-trainer alongside his father Toby, Edmonds shared in more than 350 winners, including a Stradbroke Handicap victory with Tyzone less than a year into the venture.

Extragalactic promises to be a game-changer for Edmonds.

In a race that has been overwhelmingly dominated by older sprinters, Extragalactic can join Royal Merchant (2023) as a recent three-year-old filly to figure on The Goodwood’s honour roll.

Her task has been made easier with the withdrawal of Rey Magnerio, but Edmonds is loath to take winning for granted as he tries to find his place among Victoria’s training ranks with a horse “completely specked” as a yearling.

“I knew that there would be some loyal clients that I had in Queensland who would help me out a bit, but pretty much there were no guarantees, no nothing,” Edmonds told The Straight.

“I had a couple of inquiries about her, but they went cold, which was daunting at the time.

“But in the end, it didn’t take a massive amount of time to get her sold from where I was starting. I just got aggressive on the phone and got her done.”

Encouraged by the statistics that suggested the filly’s Deep Field cross with the Al Maher mare Alliterate would work, Edmonds’ inspection at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale matched his criteria.

But her weanling sale price of $220,000 tempered his enthusiasm. 

He was certain the filly out of the Widden Stud draft would be unaffordable.

When the bidding stalled, Edmonds got interested, but it needed a voice of reassurance for him to move on to the filly.

Edmonds recalled: “The bidding got to $110,000, $130,000 and I was on the phone to a bloke who inspected her with me … and I said ‘do you think I should buy this filly, she’s pretty cheap’.

“He goes, ‘did you like her’? I said, ‘I loved her’. And it got to $150,000, I put one bid in at $160,000 and that was it.”

After six starts, Extragalactic has won three races, with her Caulfield victory in April convincing Edmonds to aim higher.

Her luckless placing in the Group 2 Tobin Bronze at Morphettville a fortnight ago confirmed what her trainer had suspected before she had even raced.

“She trialled a couple of times as a two-year-old, and I had her up and going, and then she went shinsore, so I gave her a break,” Edmonds said.

“When she came back as a three-year-old, she just furnished again, and she’s still going in the right direction.

“Basically, when she trialled as a three-year-old, before her spring preparation, I thought, ‘OK, you’re pretty smart’, and she’s obviously continued to get better and better.”

Extragalactic’s rise is a trajectory Edmonds hopes can be mirrored across the operation of a Pakenham yard he opened in early 2024.

Born into racing, Edmonds briefly flirted with a career in the media before joining the family business after leaving school.

He considered several NSW training locations before settling on Victoria to launch his own stable.

It has been a test of his character.

“I’ve always loved racing in Victoria, so I just wanted to have a go at it. It’s tough, but life’s tough, that’s what it is,” he said.

“You’ve just got to try and train winners and take your chances when you can get them, really. That’s basically it.”

A Goodwood triumph will go a long way towards providing a platform to build numbers, starting with the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale and parlaying into next season’s breeze-up auctions.

“I’ve tried to buy two yearlings each year since training by myself. My MO (modus operandi) has been to buy fillies with a pedigree and make something of them,” Edmonds said.

“I’ve got about a dozen horses on the books, but only half of them in the stable at the moment.

“So not anywhere near as many as I would like, but hopefully if we can jag a result Saturday and then things will start to really roll along.

“I obviously want to expand on that in the next season or so, but that has to happen organically with results on the track.”

For Edmonds, it all comes back to one: one gamble at auction and one stable star capable of turning ambition into renewed belief.