A DAY TO DAY DOUBLE FOR TEAM SEARS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, September 22, 2024

The Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership landed winners on successive days at Talwood on September 21 and at Warwick on September 22.

Both were low-key meetings, but when you set a target and score a bullseye, any win is important.

Miss Bittersweet started as a sizzling hot favourite at $1.75 at a non-Tab meeting at Talwood ... and then won like any raging favourite should ... streaking her field in a QTIS Maiden Plate over 1400m, rolling home under Liv O’Donnell to win by a resounding five length margin.

Miss Bittersweet, a four-year-old Heroic Valour mare, was winning at the ninth attempt.

If you followed the dust cloud in the replay, you would have seen Miss Bittersweet in front, or disputing the lead, for most of the way, but in a relatively compact field ... that is until the home turn where O’Donnell pushed the button and Miss Bittersweet lengthened her stride to race away from any threat with the minimum of fuss to score an emphatic victory.
______________________________________________________________________

A day later Dear Prudence kept the Sears’ scoreboard moving when taking out a Class 1 Handicap over 1200m in a country meeting at Warwick.

The Warwick assignment was only the four-year-old mare’s seventh career start and her second career victory ... which arrived third-up, suggesting her two previous unplaced runs had helped build her up to race winning fitness.

A $4.40 second favourite with Georgina Cartwright in the saddle, Dear Prudance jumped from a number three barrier draw and was immediately caught up In a very congested crush of runners shortly after the break with eleven runners being cramped into a four length margin.

It took a good 400m for the field to sort itself out ... and, when that dust had settled, Cartwright had Dear Prudance racing in fourth spot, just shy of three lengths off the lead. She had done well to get inti that position.

As the field began to close-up again approaching the home turn and some challenges started to emerge from behind, Dear Prudence stuck steadfast to her inside line, racing just one off the fence, and, on straightening, with a line of horses now in contention, the run home became a case of the survival of the fittest.

Dear Prudence was always chasing in the first half of the straight, but she was also always resolute ... never missing a beat as she maintained a strong, focussed gallop to the line, edging into the lead inside the final 100m to salute by a 0.50 length margin with the keenness of the battle being emphasised by the fact that only 0.70 lengths covered the next four horses across the line.

More articles