ANOTHER TWO VENUE DOUBLE FOR TEAM SEARS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, January 4, 2025

The Tony and Maddysen Sears stable is no stranger to landing a same day, two-venue double and they were at it again on January 4 with Double Glazed shedding his Maiden ticket over 2150m at Ipswich and Keep It Loki also winning for the first time at Toowoomba over 1300m.

The Sears camp was the fourth stable to take on Double Glazed. He was firstly with Mick Price and Michael Kent (Jnr) and then went to Peter Robl … but he didn’t start a race for either of those stables, moving on instead to join trainer Julius Sandu, for whom Double Glazed raced nine times … with the best results there being a second and a third placing.

Then it was the Sears’ stable's turn.

So, fair to say, Double Glazed has been a work in progress and that description remained appropriate as the Sears team guided Double Glaze forward with a plan in mind to the horse’s best distance.

In his five starts since resuming on November 2, 2024, Double Glazed has raced over 1300m, 1350m, 1700m 1800m until … hey presto … the win arrived over 2150m.

And Double Glazed didn’t just win. He trounced his opposition, beating the second placed runner home by 3.53 lengths under a confident ride by Luke Dempsey, who took the big grey right back to last in the early part after jumping from barrier ten out of ten.

Dempsey continued to allow it all to unfold in front of him, giving Double Glazed a quiet ride down the back stretch, and he only started to quicken the tempo on the Sears trained runner in the mjddle of the sweep to the home turn … where it quickly became apparent that Double Glazed was full of running.

Coming from eight to nine lengths off the pace … and last … in the back straight, Double Glazed, holding the inside run, was up to fourth and only two lengths back on the turn and Dempsey wasn’t about to wait any longer.

He had Double Glazed stretch out with meaning on straightening and, in a flash of grey, Double Glazed exploded along the rail, taking over the lead with complete authority before maintaining a strong, sustained run to the line which left his rivals floundering in his wake.

It might have taken a while for Double Glazed to put that first win on the board, but when he did it came with some aplomb.
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Back at Toowoomba, some six-and-a-half hours after Double Glazed had got the job done at Ipswich, Tony and Maddysen Sears ticked off another winner … Keep It Loki.

The lightly raced three-year-old was only having his third career start. The son of headwater was unplaced in his first two outings in what appeared to be two ordinary results, but he was still very much in the stage of building race fitness and racing experience there.

Third time out, and there was a medium of support for Keep It Loki here, shortening from $4.20 to start second favourite at $3.80.

That betting move would prove to be spot on, although the race was no ‘gimme’.

Keep It Loki, with Brandon Lerena in the saddle, raced just worst than midfield in the early part, some five lengths off the leader after jumping from a wide draw.

Keep It Loki was three wide in the sweep to the home turn, and cornered four wide, but Lerena had quietly, but steadily, allowed his mount to make up ground during this phase of the race, so that, when Keep It Loki straightened, he was now only three lengths off the lead with a clear run to the line … and Keep It Loki needed no second asking.

The son of Headwater lengthened his stride on cue and forged forward in a no-nonsense manner and, although Black Assassin($4.40) did try to make a race of it along the inside, once Keep It Loki had claimed the lead with 180m left to run, there was only going to be one result.

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