SARAH'S SONNETS LANDS HER FIRST CAREER WIN

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 25, 2026

The lightly raced four-year-old Sarah’s Sonnets found a winning rhythm when proving to be too strong for her opposition in a Maiden Plate over 1600m at Gatton on January 25.

This win gave the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership their seventh win of the month, a set of results which included Yellow Brick’s emphatic win in the $1.5 million Magic Millions QTIS Open on Magic Millions race-day.

As always with the Sears camp, this was about placing horses where they can win and, while they did not set the bar that high for Sarah’s Sonnets in her introduction to race action (she did not race as a two-year-old or a three-year-old) they followed a plan which brought the daughter of Castelvecchio that important first race win in only her third start.

Jumping as the $4 second favourite under jockey Fred Larson, Sarah’s Sonnets left the gates well enough but with several runners looking to go forward, Larson settled her in sixth place early, racing some five lengths off the lead.

Stuck inbetween runners mid-race, Larson decided to make an early move on Sarah’s Sonnets, quickening the tempo on the Sears trained runner as early as the 400m mark in the sweep to the home turn.

In clear air now, Sarah’s Sonnets charged up towards the lead to corner in second spot, hard ridden, still two lengths behind the frontrunning outsider Summer Ready ($41).

Sarah’s Sonnets showed her greenness and her limited race experience twice in the early part of the home straight. She did not corner the best and then, when closing up on Summer Ready, Sarah’s Sonnets shifted ground markedly, running inwards some three to four horses to line up alongside Summer Ready and join that runner at relatively close quarters.

That move didn’t do any damage to Sarah’s Sonnets momentum though and, once back on a straight course, the Sears trained runner was just too powerful for Summer Ready and, with nothing threatening from behind, Sarah’s Sonnets drew clear at the head of affairs over the closing stages to ultimaely score a soft win by 2.44 lengths.

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