JAKE Edmunds admits he has been blown away by the huge interest Front Page has generated amongst Border punters.
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Edmunds is a part-owner of the Geoff Duryea-trained gelding who stamped himself as a star of the future with a dominant 2.8-length victory at Flemington in listed company on Saturday.
Front Page joined a star-studded honour roll with boom sprinters Nature Strip and Gytrash the past two winners of the listed feature.
Edmunds who is an avid punter said he had been inundated with calls from family and friends in the lead-up to Saturday inquiring whether to take the 10/1 on offer on for Front Page.
The lucky owner told anybody that would listen to back Front Page.
"The interest in Front Page has been overwhelming to say the least," Edmunds said.
"I went to Marc Duryea's house with Andrew Cronin who are also part-owners to watch the race and we left our mobile phones on the bench.
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"It's fair to say we carried on a bit after he won.
"We all went to check our phones about half-an-hour after the race
"I'm not exaggerating but I had 75 text messages from workmates, friends of friends, blokes you know from the pub and your kids friends parents.
"I also had missed calls and voicemails from well-wishes who just wanted to say thanks for the tip.
"It was the same for Marc and Crowie (Andrew), Marc had 81 messages and Crowie had 66.
"And that's within 30 minutes of the race.
"I now joke the difference between winning and losing is about 70 text messages and everybody who backed him was over the moon."
Edmunds said he knew Front Page was an exceptional talent after his arrogant 9.5-length win in class record time at Albury when resuming.
"I think I was the least surprised of the group by his win on Saturday," he said.
"I believe times don't lie and to run a class record at Albury on a soft 6 was extraordinary.
"I study the times closely and that's why I thought he could run a huge race at Flemington.
"Geoff is an old-school trainer and is very patient with his horses and there was no way known he would start the horse if he didn't think it was going to be competitive."
The popularity of Front Page was underlined after the Hotel Australia in Corowa run out of cash to pay winning punters.
"We went there for lunch on Sunday and the locals were telling us they couldn't pay out all the winning tickets," he said.
"Apparently the punters nearly blew the roof off the pub on Saturday when Front Page hit the front, they were cheering that loud.
"Reportedly there were similar scenes at The Star and Brady's Railway Hotel in Albury.
"I also heard a couple of former Albury footballers got evicted for the SS&A Club for breaching social distancing rules while celebrating the win."
There has been several big offers of around the seven figure mark to connections to purchase the son of Magnus since Saturday's win.
Edmunds said he had been around long enough to know that everything has a price and connections would be mad not to consider offers.
"There comes a point when there is an offer so big for the horse you can't ignore it," he said.
"Since we own the dam in Stacey Lee if we sold Front Page it could open up the opportunity of going to a higher profile stallion.
"So we are in discussions now and initially there was a lot of nos to selling amongst the group including me.
"But there is a few yeses and the offer has increased significantly since the weekend.
"It is getting to the point now where some of the nos to selling are wavering.
"And I am one of them to be honest."
Front Page's impressive victory has seen him storm into second favourite at $6 for The Kosciuszko at Randwick in October.
Most of the connections are also in the ownership of News Girl who is the older sibling of Front Page.
News Girl is also considered among the leading chances for the $1.3-million feature and is an $11-chance.
Edmunds said while he wasn't getting ahead of himself, it was a surreal feeling to be part-owner of two leading fancies for the lucrative feature.
"That's the most exciting part about all this is to be involved in big races," he said.
"To see Donna Scott's mare Bennelong Dancer compete in the Country Championships final three years in-a-row and fly the flag for Albury was amazing.
"I'm an Albury boy and to even think that we may have two runners in a race like the Kosciuszko is a dream come true.
"Just to have a runner in a race of that ilk is a life dream let alone having two contenders."
