The Breeding Barn can wait

The words ‘unsung hero’ can be attributed to a number of different unseen participants in the horse racing industry, but one that definitely fits the bill is the job of a farrier, and none more so in the incredible case of Spicy Martini (Justify) and Scott Bryce.

Bryce, a professional farrier that is now based in Queensland but who frequently travels for special cases, is directly tied to the recent huge success of Toby Edmonds’ mare – who landed the Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) when last seen on June 13.

Spicy Martini is a four-year-old daughter of Justify (Scat Daddy) that was purchased by Edmonds for a mere $8,000 during the 2023 Inglis March (Early) Online Sale out of Coolmore Stud, a price that on first looks makes you question ‘how was she so cheap?’.

However, along with Spicy Martini’s undoubtedly elite-level talent comes an ongoing problem with her feet, a problem that Bryce has long dealt with first hand.

The mare has ‘chronic heel pain’ according to Bryce, meaning the process of shoeing her and keeping her feet sound during her racing campaigns is an arduous one, but one that has ultimately reaped great rewards.

“She gets chronic heel pain, it’s due to her confirmation,” Bryce told ANZ News. “She trots like a duck and swings her legs here and everywhere, but she’s obviously well worth all the effort.

“She would be one of the worst-footed horses I have ever worked on and it’s such a big process to keep her sound while she’s in racing work. 

“She is quite a funny horse as when she’s not comfortable she can go from a 4 out of 5 lame to spot on once you find the right thing for her. She’s a lovely patient though and very well behaved.”

Bryce reveals that the task of getting her shoes correct to withstand her racing work is one that has taken hours of trial and error and practice.

“It’s about a four-hour process to shoe her, we do lots of different things,” he says.

“We have to get her ankles right, take videos of how she’s landing and make sure she’s loading evenly on certain parts, so it’s a long process. 

“There’s been times we’ve tried like seven different things until we’ve found the right one that works for her.”

Adding to complications last preparation, Spicy Martini had actually developed a kind of quarter crack in one foot prior to her career-high Group 1 success last month, meaning plenty of work was done beforehand to have the mare in racing condition.

“So she had a bad overreach which then developed into a quarter crack so we had to dremel down that crack and then with a drill bit we drilled through the foot and stitched it all together with quartet crack lines,” Bryce revealed. 

“She actually won the Stradbroke with that all stitched up.”

Edmonds, who is based on the Gold Coast, had employed other farriers in an attempt to fix Spicy Martini’s feet ailments before he came across Bryce – who reveals he was recommended to the trainer by expert equine veterinarian Dr. Johnnie Walker.

“They had multiple farriers in to work on her but they couldn’t keep her sound and it was Johnnie Walker that recommended me to Toby to fly me up to Queensland,” Bryce said.

“There’s been nights that we’ve been there for five hours! Before she won the Ascot Handicap [on April 18] she was lame as a cat so we stayed there on the Wednesday night and worked there for five and a half hours, myself and Toby, and we got her sound and she’s been as good as gold ever since. 

“We finally worked out the solution for her and the confirmation in her feet and she’s been airborne ever since then.”

The word ‘airborne’ is absolutely the correct way to describe Spicy Martini’s trajectory over the last three months. A trajectory that could have been towards the breeding barn instead of Group 1 glory and leading contender for this Springs key sprints.  

As a dual Listed scorer and winner of the Fred Best Classic (Gr 3, 1350m), a three-year-old Spicy Martini took to the Stradbroke Handicap in June, 2025 but could only manage 15th of the 18 runners that day as a $51 poke.

Fast forward two stints in the spelling paddock and a pair of midfield runs in the Sheraco Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and Silver Eagle (1300m), the mare was hitting the front again in the Ascot Handicap (Listed, 1000m) back in April this year.

However, it was two starts ago that her form really hit new levels with a second placing, beaten a length, behind the evergreen Rothfire (Rothesay) in May’s Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m), teeing her up beautifully for her last-start Stradbroke success – at the second attempt.

Since then, the mare has again visited the spelling paddock, although only for a short period prior to her upcoming spring campaign, something that again brings about a different scenario for Bryce.

“She’s only having four weeks out, if we tipped her out barefoot then her feet would all break away and because she’s got such bad feet she doesn’t really cope without shoes,” he said.

“So we took all the special stuff off [after her race] and hot shod her up and she goes out like that.

“When she’s in actual training work we have heel rebuilds on her, special bar plates, pads, and at some points we’ve had to fix her feet up and keep her foot together. 

“I rebuild her feet, I handmake special bar shoes for her and all sorts of stuff. So I rebuild the heel and change her angles to redistribute the weight over the whole foot. 

“When you rebuild the heel, none of the pressure is actually going up the real heel, it goes up the fake one you’ve built which alleviates the actual heel. 

“So I go to the races with her and change her over to racing plates in the tie-up stalls out the back before she goes out, and then usually we put the bars back on after the race but after the Stradbroke we knew she was heading for a spell so we didn’t do that.”

What really makes Spicy Martini even more unique is the fact that in every other sense she is sound, with Bryce admitting it is just the mare’s feet that cause her any problems.

“It is solely her feet,” he said. “You can ask the owners as the vet hasn’t had to go anywhere near her! 

“They’re pretty lucky to be honest given her conformation. A good conformation on a horse is where you’d run a plumb line down its knee and it should drop at the centre of its foot, with her you run a centre line down her knee and you get thin air underneath, there is no foot there. 

“So you can understand why she only got sold for $8,000, which is a miracle, given what they paid for her, how she’s turned out.” 

“This prep is the soundest we’ve had her and it seems we’ve finally worked out the right package for her.”

Spicy Martini now incredibly finds herself as a genuine Group 1 winner and hugely valuable broodmare prospect instead of potentially being lightly raced or retired, largely in part to the work of Bryce. Trainer Toby Edmonds was quick to give credit to his farrier as the mare returned to the mounting yard on Stradbroke Day and winning jockey Taylor Marshall also rang to give his thanks after the mare’s Stradbroke victory.

“Not many people really realise what goes into keeping a horse like her sound,” he said, while showing support for his many farrier counterparts and Edmonds stable team.

“The hundreds of hours that we’ve spent on her and multiple nights being there just to keep her going. Plenty would have no idea what goes into this stuff.”

As for what is next for Spicy Martini, Edmonds revealed that a trip to Randwick for The Shorts (Gr 2, 1100m) on September 19 is the first-up plan, and considering the mountain already climbed to unlock her potential, a tilt at The Everest seems well within her ability.

“She’ll head to Sydney for the spring and her kick-off point will be The Shorts on September 19,” Edmonds told ANZ.

“She has spelled extremely well and was back in work last Friday.” 

It seems the best could yet be to come and the breeding barn is at least another year away for this talented mare.