The 51-year-old was born into the racing industry in Queensland where his grand-fathers Bill Edwards and Charlie Bawden were both trainers in Townsville while his father Jimmy Edwards was a jockey in northern Queensland.

But it was his uncle, Ashley Bawden, a former leading Sydney apprentice, that taught him most about horses.

A day after his 15th birthday Jamie became apprenticed to Bawden and in three years rode 39 winners before he got too heavy and joined Keith Dryden’s Canberra stable as a foreman.

In 1991 Jamie moved to Melbourne and had two-year stints as stable foreman with Rick Hore Lacy and Mick Price before leasing a property at Mount Macedon where broke horses as well as pre-trained for Tony Vasil and Gerald Ryan.

In 1997 Jamie was granted a trainers licence and All The Difference was his first winner at Ballarat in June that year, and Angel Love was his first city success at Moonee Valley in February 1999.

Jamie has now trained nearly 300 winners.

He was Geelong’s leading trainer four years in a row from 2004 to 2007 and got his first big winner when Dream The Dream won the 2006 Group 2 South Australian Oaks. A year later he won Group 1 South Australian Derby and VRC St Leger with Lazer Sharp.

In 2007 Jamie and Bruce Elkington formed a successful training partnership and together they won the Geelong trainers five times before Bruce retired in July this year.

While based in the country surrounds, Jamie prides himself on his professionalism and models his training operation on the big city stables to get the best results for his owners.

Jamie is married to Janet and they have three sons, James, Darby and Brad.