BEN'S BEAT: MEETING WITH MADDY

By Ben Saunders | Sunday, September 29, 2019

In this edition of Ben’s Beat, the personal blog of Ben Saunders, Ben seeks out the background story of Maddy Sears, who recently joined her father Tony in a training partnership in Toowoomba. The team already has the scoreboard well and truly rolling with Maddy clearly enjoying every moment of her new challenge. This is Ben’s Beat, which appears exclusively on HRO.

Ben: “Your dad has always been in the game and your mom (Leigh) has been involved as well. Where did it all start for you?”

Maddy: “I was riding in the show-ring on my own since I was two years old … so it has been in my blood basically from the moment I hit the ground. I always had something to do with the racehorses but I wasn’t really involved with them until I started working at the stables in March this year.

“Before that I had a nine to five office job in publishing doing advertising, writing, designing and selling print advertising. I got a bit stir crazy and I said to dad … ah, I want to come work in the stables until I figure out what I want to do and I fell in love with it.”

Ben: “Didn’t you also have a part time job with a vet?”

Maddy: “I actually did my Certificate 2 in Animal Studies with Lindsay Manaught and Trent Raeburn which did wonders for me. It taught me things about simple animal health and that has helped me so much now in terms of picking up on little things that might be affecting horses in the stable.

“I did a bit of retail as well at a saddlery and also at a feedshop so the few different places I have worked at … and those different avenues … has helped shape me into the person that I am.”

Ben: “Now you are learning from your father with his background as both a jockey, back in the day, and as a trainer. He knows his form and he is very good at his placement of horses in races.”

Maddy: “Yeah, dad’s fantastic when it comes to placing horses in the right races and setting them up to win … especially with the young ones. We have a pretty good first-up track record.

“Just generally, he is an amazing person to learn off. He is just so knowledgeable. I do like to think that he is also learning quite a few things off me. It is different when a you have a different set of eyes looking over something.

“We’ve really clicked in that regard. It was a bit of a nerve-racking thing going in because working with family can go one of two ways, but it is working out well.

“That is not to say there hasn’t been a few times when we have really butted heads but we are pretty similar in personality so we work it out. We might go separate ways for a moment or two. I go and do something. Dad goes and does something and its not long before its all good again and we get on with it.

“Butting heads on occasions is not a bad thing. It shows we are both so career driven and success driven and competitive … and you need to have that in your makeup to succeed in racing. We both want the same thing in the end and that’s the most important thing.

Ben: “In terms of working horses, your dad is an advocate of using full race gear and giving them good hard hit-outs over a half mile in pairs. Do you always go along with that pattern of training?”

Maddy: “Yeah, I think so. We just work on what horses work best together but you have to keep an eye on what is best for every horse.

"For example, we have a couple of horses who are really good track workers by themselves but when you put them with a mate they almost lose a leg so you basically have to pay a lot of attention to every individual horse in the stable and do what suits them best.”

Ben: “There was some mix up or a delay in finalising your training partnership registration. That’s all good now is it?”

Maddy: “We should have had our first partnership winner at Gatton when a horse called Special Thing won but unfortunately the paperwork hadn’t come through in time for my name to be on there as a trainer.

“Special Thing is very special to me. I bought her as a show horse and then mum and I decided to put her back in work and she has been so consistent. That was my first win in my mind but unfortunately it wasn’t official as it wasn’t in my name.

“Once the partnership paperwork finally went through it has sort of been all guns blazing. We got our first winner and got the monkey off our back with a really smart horse called Flaming Boss. He won phenomenally a couple of Wednesdays ago in town.

“Then Miss Beneteau won at Toowoomba. Then The Big House won at Dalby on Thursday and The Real Boss won at the Gold Coast yesterday.

“So, as I said, the monkey is off the back now.

“There is no looking back.”

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