STEADY READY IS THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN

By Graham Potter | Friday, March 28, 2025

Steady Ready gave the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership their second success in the King Of The Mountain, in only the third edition of the race, when he followed his script to perfection to claim a thoroughly deserved victory.

The speedy son of Better Than Ready was always going to find the lead early and when young apprentice Cody Collis then rated the five-year-old like a seasoned professional, Steady Ready was sitting right in the pound seats as he brought the field into the home straight.

And then he kicked again … and suddenly the gap back to the chasing pack was three to four lengths.

The only possible question mark before the race was how Steady Ready would cope with the 1200m trip in the heavy race conditions as he arguably could be expected to feel the pinch over the concluding stages, but having that early cushion back to his rivals to work with … the gap was more like five lengths halfway up the straight … meant that the race would remain in Steady Ready’s control for a long way.

And courtesy of Steady Ready and Collis’ combined focussed determination, that turned out to be all of the way!

Russian Alliance kept chasing hard down the centre of the track and Millane surged up late, coming from far back and flying out wide, to get to within 0.20 and 0.30 lengths of Steady Ready at the line respectively, but, with their superbly scripted and carried out gameplan, Steady Ready, Teams Sears and Cody Collis got the job done, ultimately in a thrilling fashion.

Steady Ready’s drift in the betting from $3.70 to a starting price of $5 might have represented that element of doubt mentioned above, but that would turn into really generous odds for those who kept faith with the Sears trained runner.

This was a third successive win for Steady Ready who could not have come into the race with better credentials after two eye-catching wins at Eagle Farm, including a win in which he set a new track record and became the first horse to break 56 seconds on the ‘new’ Eagle Farm track.

A drift in the betting … yes … but nobody could say they didn’t see him coming.

Steady Ready’s previous history in the race also stood him in good stead.

He has been a constant force in the King Of The Mountain, finishing third behind his stablemate Yellow Brick in the inaugural running of the event and then finishing second to Rothfire last year.

Those results, in the end, proved just to be a countdown … three, two … to … one … first place and the liftoff as the King Of The Mountain winner.

Young Cody Collis deserves a special mention.

Collis did have the advantage of having ridden Steady Ready in those two Eagle Farm wins, so he did have fine tuned knowledge of the horse.

There was to be a two-part twist in the tale though before Collis got the leg up on Steady Ready for the King Of The Mountain.

Firstly, Zac Lloyd was booked to ride Steady Ready in the big race … then Lloyd picked up a suspension which ruled him out of the Steady Ready ride.

The reins were duly handed back to Collis … and the rest, as they say, is history.

When speaking in those Eagle Farm post-race interviews, Collis could not praise Steady Ready enough.

He almost seemed in awe of Steady Ready.

You can only imagine how he is feeling tonight, not least the satisfaction of knowing that he didn’t blink and took the opportunity provided to him with both hands, a fact which stands firmly to his credit.

To use another cliché … ‘all’s well that ends well.’

*By taking home the $350 000 first prize here, Steady Ready has moved his career earnings through the $1 million barrier, courtesy of seven wins and eight minor placings from nineteen starts.

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