SEARS STABLE HITS A HOT SPOT OF FORM

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 4, 2026

Five winners in eight days … that the red hot run of form produced by the Tony And Maddysen Sears training partnership from June 27 to July 4, and it was only appropriate that the stable’s two best performers, Yellow Brick and Steady Ready bookended those five victories.

Yellow Brick returned to his best form to take out the Group 3, W J Healy over 1200m on June 27 (see separate story hereYELLOW BRICK BOUNCES BACK WITH A BIG WIN).

Three days later on June 30, well removed from the spotlight of the Queensland Winter Carnival, the four-year-old gelding Vorkuta scored an important, overdue win when taking out a BM65 Handicap over 1200m at Kilcoy … important because the son of Under the Louvre, a Stradbroke winner, had finished close-up in the minor placings in all of his previous four starts and he needed to shake the tag of being a perennial place-getter, who might have forgotten how to win.

Vortuka did drift from an opening call of $3.90 to a starting price of $6, but those who stuck fast with the Sears trained runner had a pretty easy watch as Fred Larson positioned Vortuka on the back of the speed early on from where he kept a watching brief, a couple of lengths back, all the way to the home turn, where Larson urged Vortuka up along a clear passage along the inside rail as the tiring early leader Speed Map (the $2 favourite) shifted ground.

Vortuka didn’t just take the gap, he accelerated through it and Larson kept his foot on the pedal allowing Vortuka, who was clearly enjoying the heavy going, to shoot right away from his rivals to go to the line unchallenged having established a substantial 3.61 length winning margin to claim his third win from sixteen starts (with six minor places).

Twenty-four hours later, on June 1, the Sears stable took home another winner.

This time it was June, a former Singapore based galloper, who saluted in a BM75 Handicap over 1600m at Eagle Farm.

This was also a welcome step forward for June, who had placed second in no less than seven of his sixteen starts since joining the Sears stable … this being his first win since June 2025.

His general form was still good enough to see June installed as the $3.10 favourite and he duly proved to be worthy of his place on the betting boards.

Ridden in confident fashion by Ben Thomson, who took June to the back of the field … some six to seven lengths off the lead … until the home turn … June began to make up ground in the home straight, doing so more in a steady, gradual fashion rather than with any real flourish, but he kept coming with what would turn out to be inning momentum as he put his head in front with 75m left to run to ultimately claim victory by 0.23 lengths.

Then it was on to Saturday July 4 … with the Sears training partnership claimed a two venue double with Steady Ready saluting in an Open Plate over 1000m at the Sunshine Coast (see separate story here STEADY READY COMES UP TRUMPS) … and Keep it Loki getting the job done at the Gold Coast under Fred Larson in a Band 0-58 Handicap over 1400m.

Keep It Loki ($6) had to overcome the worst of the draw to do that (barrier fourteen out of fourteen) and the path Larson tracked was to drop Keep It Loki out from that draw and race in last place in the big field, all of twelve lengths off the speed, for the first half of the race.

Keep It Loki was still well out of his ground on straightening, with Larson taking the Sears trained runner all of twelve to thirteen-wide … heading towards the outside rail … as the field hit the home straight.

He had the $51 bolter Better Yet out there in the wind with him, and it was these two runners who joined issue, fighting it out the whole length of the straight, sweeping past the rest of the field as they matched strides in a stamina sapping battle which was ultimately only decided in Keep It Loki’s favour in the final strides.

This was Keep It Loki’s third win from seventeen starts. He also has three runner-up finishes to his credit.

Earlier in the month, on June 6, Farwest had scored for Team Sears in a BM78 Handicap over 2226m.

The win came with Fred Larson again doing the honours in the saddle,

Farwest ($5) found himself in some tight galloping room coming past the stands for the first time, but Larson had sorted out that inconvenience by the time the field headed out towards the back straight where Farwest settled in fifth place three to four lengths behind the race leader, Let’s Do It Again ($4).

The field packed up approaching the home turn with Farwest swinging all of five wide, but now placed in clear air, as the chase to run down the still leading Let’s Do It Again, began in earnest.

Let’s Do It Again kept on kicking, but Farwest began going smoothly through his gears, and he built up enough revs to not only get to Let’s Do It Again with 120m left to run … but to go away and win by 0.49 lengths.

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