INCH PERFECT RIDE GETS RED TOP HOME

By Graham Potter | Saturday, March 4, 2023

Yet another win for the Ben Thompson and Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership combination arrived at Eagle Farm on March 4 when Red Top, easy to back at $9, showed great commitment in a punishing two-horse battle to get up to claim an 1800m QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap contest by the narrowest of margins.

In truth, it had been a while between drinks for Red Top with his previous success coming in July 2022, but in his seven starts since then before going into this contest, Red Top had only finished more than three lengths back on two occasions, which at least suggested a consistency of form which the three-year-old could build on.

Up until this race, Red Top had never raced beyond 1600m and the change in strategy ... extending the trip to 1800m ... immediately paid dividends.

Not that it wasn’t a reasonably tough watch early as Thompson allowed Red Top to steadily drift back through the field, to the degree that the son of Top Echelon raced in last place of the ten runners, all of ten lengths off the leader as the field went down the back straight.

But there was method in Thompson’s ‘madness’.

He was actually tracking the $2.60 race favourite Tavi Time who also raced well back, just a couple of lengths ahead of the Sears trained runner, and, when Tavi Time made his forward move early in the sweep to the home turn, Thompson similarly asked Red Top to improve and follow Tavi Time’s pathway as these two runners shifted out wider on the track into clear running.

The only potential problem with that move was that Tavi Time and Red Top cornered seven and eight wide respectively, which placed a premium of their ability to see out the 1800m, particularly as they had a deficit of five lengths to run down.

Both would pass that test in admirable fashion.
Tavi Time was the first to be set alight and he accelerated smartly enough to already claim the lead as early as the 200m mark. That almost looked to be a winning effort, but he still had Red Top in tow and the Sears runner was not about to concede defeat.

Red Top’s determined chase took literally the full length of the straight to reel in Tavi Time ... and then it was only in the very last stride that he did so to claim a thrilling victory.

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