OCTOBER - THE SLOW BURN COULD BE WARMING UP

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, May 6, 2026

The first six days of May have been a very productive time for the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership. Nine runners over four meetings have produced four winners … Hellarious (at the Gold Coast on May 2) … Switch The Stars and Yellow Brick (at Rockhampton on May 5) and now October has got in on the act, winning a BM78 Handicap over 1600m at Eagle Farm on May 6.

Adding a bit of spice to the result was the fact that the New Zealand bred son of Ocean Park was only on the fifth line of betting at $13 in the eight horse field.

It has been a bit of a slow burn with the five-year-old chestnut who came into the Sears yard in early 2025 after having already raced fifteen times in Singapore where he won four times … including three wins on the trot … and he also finished second on three occasions.

October did kick off in Australia by winning on debut for the Sears Team … that win coming at a starting price $12 in a Class 4 Handicap over 1400m at Eagle Farm on May 7, 2025 … but he had pretty much been marking time since then having only one third place finish to show in his nine subsequent starts since that Eagle Farm win, leading up to this latest assignment.

Emily Lang, who rode October in that victory at Eagle Farm and who was back in the saddle of October here for the first in eight runs, took the five-year-old back from the wide gate at the start (barrier number eight out of eight) and the pair raced in last place, seven lengths off the speed being set by Grinzinger Knight ($26) as the field went down the back straight.

That gap to the leader blew out to all of nine lengths in the sweep to the home turn and Lang stuck to the rail on straightening, taking the shortest way home … which was certainly October’s best option at that stage.

Ay first it looked like October was still not doing enough, but then he got a reminder of the task at hand from Lang and he suddenly started to go through his gears and move forward with some real intent.

With 150m left to run, October was right on the heels of Grinzinger Knight, who was still leading with other challengers spread right across the track, including horses to October’s outside in what was becoming a very busy finish.

A deft flick of the wrists and Lang made the marginal switch, taking October to the outside of Grinzinger Knight and into a gap between the long-time leader and Cast Party ($11) … a gap October was strong enough to take advantage of … reaching the lead within a matter of strides, albeit with only fifty metres left to run.

Grinzinge Knight and Cast Party tried to stay with October on either side of the Sears trained runner but, in the end, they had to settle for second and third place respectively just 0,50 lengths and 0.72 lengths behind the winner.