In-form Usmanov is one of nine acceptors for Toby and Trent Edmonds at the Coast Coast.
The Toby and Trent Edmonds stable has reached 100 winners in a season for the third time and is headed for another milestone.
Toby Edmonds trained 109 winners last season and 106-1/2 winners in 2017/18 when his son Trent was his foreman.
This season is their first as a partnership and Powering’s win at Ipswich on Sunday was their 100th.
The wins are made up of 80 in Queensland and 20 in NSW.
There are three months of the current season remaining and it seems highly likely the partnership will pass Toby Edmonds’ previous high.
It has led to an interesting sidelight to the season with a contest between Tony Gollan, who is on 105-1/2 winners, and the Edmonds partnership for the most Queensland winners.
Racing in Queensland is divided into regions and the Edmonds partnership has dominated south west metropolitan zone meetings.
The partnership has had 12 winners since regional racing started on April 2.
Trent Edmonds said it had been rewarding to get to the century in his first full season as a co-trainer.
“We equalled Dad’s record of five winners at a meeting earlier this month and it is a real credit to our staff in tough times with the coronavirus,” he said.
“Our win strike rate is about 21 per cent and our place rate is running at nearly 47 per cent which is up there with the best.”
The partnership has nine runners at Friday’s Gold Coast metropolitan meeting headed by Usmanov who is chasing a hat-trick in the Open Handicap (900m).
“We have accepted with both Usmanov and Royal Witness in the short course opens at the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast on Saturday,” Edmonds said.
“At this stage both will run at the Gold Coast but we will probably make a final decision on Thursday.”
They have a strong hand in the Last Post 3YO Handicap (1100m) with four runners, Zac Attack, Ruuca, Champange Jet and Bettina.
“A couple of them are poorly drawn but they should come in a few with the scratchings,” Edmonds said.
Another of their runners, Peppi La Few, is chasing his fourth straight win in the Class 6 Plate (1400m).
“He has bloomed this time in and might even be up to something a bit better in the winter,” Edmonds said.
