Finishes don’t come more decisive than this!
Going into the last meeting of the season at the Gold Coast on Saturday, Adam Campton and Toby Edmonds were locked together at the top of the Gold Coast Trainers’ Premiership with a seemingly cut and thrust list of entries between them being enough to suggest that the last day shootout would come down to a very close call to decide the premiership winner for the 2023/24 season.
But that theory only lasted for three out of the seven races where both trainers added another win to their respective totals … but then the Campton stable showed an explosive turn of foot in the premiership home straight, blasting four straight winners in spellbinding fashion to race to the premiership title with a final flourish and fanfare that few could have predicted.
In essence, it was not only a very special and really exceptional day for all of the team members at the Campton racing team, but the five winners on the day also arguably made a strong statement in terms of things to come for the yard, bearing in mind Campton’s trajectory given that this premiership honour had been achieved in only his second full season as a trainer.
Fair to say that Campton has come a long way in a short space of time since his treasured first career win as a trainer with Lord Markel’s at Warwick on January 15, 2022.
Adding extra spice to the Saturday’s results was the fact the Campton stable apprentice Jace McMurray partnered three of the Campton winners on the day,
A week earlier, in McMurray’s first meeting at the Gold Coast after being granted his provincial license, the Campton/McMurray team scored a double in McMurray’s last two rides on the card, and he stepped that up to three wins from five rides for the stable on Saturday … meaning that the young rider has brought home five winners (in just seven stable rides) over the last two Gold Coast meetings at the most crucial time in the chase for the Trainer’s Premiership.
Clearly, in the end, McMurray played a vital role in the Campton premiership win, underlining, in the final push, just what a in-house team effort it was that got the stable over the line, capping off what has been an outstanding season for all concerned.
