HELLARIOUS HAS THE LAST LAUGH

By Graham Potter | Saturday, May 2, 2026

The Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership saddled two runners in a Maiden Plate over 1150m at the Gold Coast on May 2 … and their runners finished in first place and third place with Hellarious ($6), the longer priced of the two Sears runners, claiming the victory while the Sears trained race favourite King Of Valhalla ($2.25) had to settle for third place.

King Of Valhalla had been out of action for a full twelve month period (having only had one start before that) when he kicked off his latest preparation on February 18. He raced a further four times after that … finishing in the first three places in four of those five starts and coming home less than 0.50 lengths behind the winner in in last start leading into this Gold Coast run.

So, you could see how she gained favouritism.

Hellarious, for her part, had only raced twice before (she did not race as a two-year-old or a three-year-old) … and so the very lightly raced four-year-old mare was more difficult to assess form-wise … even though she had finished in fourth place in both of her outings.

Hence the $6 odds.

King Of Valhalla jumped straight into the lead from a number two barrier draw and Danny Peisley continued to allow the son of Invader to set the target out front for most of the running.

In the meantime, Brandon Lerena had Hellarious, who came out of barrier number eight, holding down fifth spot, some three wide and four to five lengths off the lead in the first half of the race.

King Of Valhalla brought the field to the home turn and was still travelling strongly on straightening. He had the $11 chance Thrash a Bully snapping at his heels at that stage while Hellarious, now all of four wide, was starting to make up ground coming down the centre of the track.

King Of Valhalla still led with 100m left to run, but now both Thrash A Bully and Hellarious were closing fast … seemingly locked together.

They got to King Of Valhalla with less than fifty metres left to run and, for a brief moment, a triple dead-heat loomed as a possibility, but Lerena got Hellarious to find that vital bit extra when it mattered most to get the decision,\ albeit narrowly ahead of the second placed Thrash a Bully, who snared King Of Valhalla in the final strides to earn that position.