YELLOW BRICK WON'T DEFEND KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE. CAN THE STABLE STILL HOLD ONTO THE CROWN?

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Tony Sears has confirmed that Yellow Brick, a horse he trains in partnership with his daughter Maddysen, will not be defending his King Of The Mountain title when the second running of that race takes place at Toowoomba on January 1.

The well performed son of The Mission has won six races and been placed second on another four occasions from only twelve starts, but his most recent campaign when he ventured south with the aim of tackling the lucrative Golden Eagle in Sydney did not pan out as planned.

An unfortunate gut-buster of a run in the Silver Eagle in the lead up to the Golden Eagle ultimately led to the Sears camp deciding to bring Yellow Brick’s preparation to a premature halt in the best interest of the horse, who was sent to the paddock instead, where he is currently enjoying a lengthy spell.

Yellow Brick might not be there to defend his title, but the stable hopes of scoring back-to-back wins in the King Of The Mountain are still very much alive. In fact, it is alive on two fronts.

The stable already has Steady Ready as a confirmed runner in the race, courtesy of slot holder and stable client Jayven See, who owns Steady Ready, having selected his own runner to represent his slot.

Steady Ready is a very capable three-time winner (with seven placings) from only ten starts. He finished third behind stable companion Yellow Brick in last year’s King Of The Mountain.

“Steady Ready will go to the Bribie in two weeks … and will go to the King Of The Mountain after that,” said Sears.

On top of that, Sears Racing hold a slot for the King Of The Mountain contest themselves, with the decision on runner selection in that regard currently in a holding pattern.

A point of interest at this time is that, with just a little over five weeks to the King Of The Mountain race-day, only two runners out of twelve have been confirmed at this stage … Steady Ready and Rothfire.

The early, confirmed presence of highly performed Rothfire in the big race lineup has really thrown the cat amongst the pigeons, arguably being a contributing factor to ten slots currently still being vacant as slot holders take time to ponder, reassess and weigh up their options knowing it will be hard for any other contender to match Rothfire’s credentials.

The field will fill up of course, and a lot can change in five weeks but, whatever comes around the Tony and Maddysen Seras training partnership will have two bites at the cherry … two runners, two chances … and you can be sure they will come out firing as they attempt to put a second King Of The Mountain trophy on the mantelpiece.

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