Seven-year-old gelding Bid Spotter had only been in Queensland a week before breaking an 18-month drought in an Open Handicap (1600m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Bid Spotter broke an 18-month drought with a win in an Open Handicap at Eagle Farm. Photo by: Daniel Costello

It had been 13 starts without a top three finish but the son of Redoute’s Choice bounced back in style to come from the back of the field and score a half-length win in his first start for new trainer Toby Edmonds.

Bid Spotter arrived at Edmonds’ Gold Coast stables from Graeme Rogerson in Sydney after one of the original owners, Rod James, bought back the horse following an ownership dispute.

James bought the three-time stakes winner at a tried horse sale in Sydney for $25,000 and immediately transferred him to Edmonds.

Starting at $26, the experienced gelding was ignored by punters but the performance didn’t surprise his new trainer.

“The information I had from the previous trainer [Rogerson] was that all his work had been really good,” Edmonds said.

“Even though he started at big odds he was one of the better performed horses in the race. He just hadn’t shown it for a while.”

A winner of eight of 42 starts and almost $500,000 in prizemoney, Bid Spotter tasted black-type success in the 2009 Tatersall’s City Club Cup before winning both the Group 3 Hobart Cup and the Listed Manion Cup in 2011.

Edmonds said there would be no rush to find a stakes target with the new stable addition but indicated he would get his chance if he could once again prove to be a consistent racehorse.

“We’ll take it a step at a time. If he gets back to being the consistent horse he was we may be able to look at something,” he said.

“But it’s still early days. Races like the Caloundra Cup and Grafton Cup next year could be suitable for him.”

Edmonds had two of the top three finishers in Saturday’s Open Handicap with consistent gelding War Ends securing his fifth consecutive placing when finishing third to his stablemate and the Patinack-owned Hour Of Peril.