BACK-TO-BACK WINS FOR CAPE CRUSADER

By Graham Potter | Monday, December 29, 2025

The Tony and Maddysen Sears trained Cape Crusader scored a second successive win when he landed the Ballina Cup Prelude BM82 Handicap over 1550m at Murwillumbah on December 29.

The five-year-old son of Heroic Valour had won his previous start at Grafton in a BM74 Handicap over 1620m and the Murwillumbah result was exactly the follow-up the Sears team was looking for from both Cape Crusader and Dylan Turner who now has two wins from two rides on the horse.

On the back of that previous win, Cape Crusader jumped as the $2.70 favourite at Murwillumbah from barrier number two and Turner had the Sears trained runner well enough away to take up a watching brief in fourth, then fifth place on the rail early, racing in midfield, some five lengths off the lead, as the field went down the back straight.

Approaching the start of the long sweep to the home turn, Turner now had Cape Crusader off the rail and the duo were on the move from the 600m mark making up ground, gradually at first, and then more quickly in the final approach to the home turn where he cornered five wide, but now right in the leading line.

Cape Crusader had a kick, but so did the $4.40 second favourite Bold Hoi Ho who was racing to the inside of Cape Crusader … and these two runners became engaged in a two-way battle for the whole length of the straight with Cape Crusader always holding the advantage.

Over the closing stages Cape Crusader had to be committed to the task to not maintain a gap to Bold Hoi Ho, but also to see off the belated challenge of the $6 chance Fat Fingers who ran on strongly from behind to cut Cape Crusader’s winning margin to a diminishing 0.34 length margin at the line.

Cape Crusader is now a seven=time winner and nine minor places from twenty-seven starts.

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