Idea’s Girl has speed and pedigree to be a threat

By Josh Spasaro

Trainer John Quarman admits Idea’s Girl is a little ‘crazy’, but in a good way ahead of her Eric Thomson Memorial heat at Albion Park on Thursday night.

The 18-month-old bitch has shown plenty of promise to begin her career, with two wins after a runner-up finish on debut on March 2.

The favourite for her first race, she found herself in second last spot early, before showing good courage to fight back and finish second.

She then won by a convincing margin two weeks later and last start she was a little slow from box seven, before again showing an impressive turn of foot to salute by a length.

Throw in the fact she overcame an early injury setback and Quarman believes Idea’s Girl has the kind of fighting mentality to compete well in her first step up to 520 metres on Thursday night.

“She is (tough). Some would say probably a little bit crazy, but she shows a lot of heart,” Quarman said.

Quarman trains out of Elimbah which is north of Brisbane.

An injury during pre-training meant Quarman hasn’t been able to do a great deal of box work with Idea’s Girl.

“So, when I was pre-training the litter, she missed a lot of that work. And, she had very little pre-training," Quarman said. 

“I more or less threw her into the deep end and she just started winning.”

Idea’s Girl drawing box four for Thursday night has not worried Quarman too much after her last start win from the penultimate lane, saluting in 19.43 seconds over 331 metres at Albion Park on March 23.

Idea’s Girl is by Ferdinand Boy, who registered 52 wins from 106 starts for top Victorian trainer, David Geall, and out of Some Idea, who saluted on 16 occasions from 149 starts for Quarman.

Ferdinand Boy was a Warrnambool Cup, Healesville Cup, Ballarat Cup and Shepparton Cup victor.

The full sisters of Idea’s Girl – Someone’s Idea (two wins from six starts), Who’s Idea (three wins from six starts), Another Idea (one win from four starts) and Got An Idea (two runner-up placings from four starts) have also shown potential to begin their careers.

“And, that’s the beauty with her and her litter sisters, they haven’t really been favoured by the box draws, but they seem to overcome them,” Quarman said.

“I think the speed they have maybe negates the box draws.

“They’re still only very young. I started them when they were 16 months old because they were showing me they were race dogs.

“From a very young age, you could just tell they wanted to be race dogs.”

Quarman said he was thrilled with the pedigree for Idea’s Girl and her results so far, but he did not want to get too carried away just yet.

“Ferdinand Boy, as we know, was a brilliant race dog. The bitch (Some Idea) – she had everything for me to be a good brood bitch,” he said.

“She was a really well-conformed bitch, a lot of chase and loved to run.

“She (Idea’s Girl) is still very young and as far as times go, she hasn’t been running real hot times yet. She might just end up a good fifth-grader.

“I don’t know if she can go any further up the scale. It’s a learning curve.”