A POLY TRACK DOUBLE FOR TONY AND MADDYSEN SEARS

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, February 23, 2022

After scoring a double at two different tracks (The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast) on February 19 … the Tony And Maddysen Sears training partnership was at it again just four days later landing another double, this time at one venue, at the Sunshine Coast on the Poly Track on February 23.

Like most meetings so far on the Ploy Track, the field numbers cut up badly, but runners who win still have a test to get through and Raging Pole and Goldeel passed their assignment with flying colours for the Sears stable.

Raging Pole was the first to earn a visit to the winner’s enclosure, claiming his sixth career success when accounting for his three opponents in a Class 5 Handicap over 1100m.

Andrew Mallyon, who had won on Red Wave in the stable’s previous double, again did the honours in the saddle.

The son of Better Than Ready came back in distance to 1100m from his last two starts (over 1350m and 1200m) and he went out for his first run on the Poly Track as the longest priced runner in the field of four.

Raging Pole landed second at the jump and then went back to last, but he was never more than just over two lengths off the lead and taking advantage of a rails run.

Mallyon was content to hold that position under the field straightened for home where he was momentarily stuck behind the wall of three runners ahead of him.

When a gap opened up hard along the inside running rail it was all systems go though as Mallyon pushed Raging Pole forward and he accelerated well enough to take the lead coming through the 200m mark, from which moment the result was never seriously in doubt … winning with slightly more authority than the official one length margin suggests.

This was Raging Pole’s sixth win from thirty-three starts. He also has run second twice and finished third twice.
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While the five-year-old Raging Pole had nine starts between his latest win and his previous success, the three-year-old Goldeel is tracking a different trajectory.

She too had only a few runners to overcome … two to be exact in only a three-runner field … and when she wrapped up that task successfully, the three-year-old daughter of Dundeel duly completed an impressive hat trick of wins … and that from only three career starts!

The breakdown of the three wins makes interesting reading.

The Maiden win came over 1350m at Ipswich on a Soft 7 track. Then Goldeel saluted in a Class 1 Fillies And Mares Plate over 1400m at the Gold Coast on a track surface rated as good and she rounded off the hat-trick very neatly the win in a Class 2 Handicap at the Sunshine Coast on a synthetic track.

Three different tracks. Three different raceing surfaces. Three different distances … that certainly ticks a lot of boxes, particularly in a horse so early in its career.

In the Poly Track race itself, Kyle Wilson-Taylor had no hesitation in taking Goldeel ($2.80) into an immediate lead … just as he had no problem in allowing the $2.60 favourite Spirit’s Charm to go past him as the field entered the back straight, with Vitessa Francais ($2.90) tucked away in third.

The three runners held their positions until the approach to the home turn where Wilson-Taylor switched Goldeel wider on the track to get a clear shot at reeling in the leader.

That was easier said than dome though, as Spirit’s Charm kicked on strongly and Wilson-Taylor really had to rev Goldeel up for what was to become a long and quite intense chase down almost the whole length of the straight before Goldeel ultimately asserted her superiority to edge clear to win by a length from Spirit’s Charm with Vitessa Francais who, would you believe it, was baulked for a run in a three horse field at the 150m mark, having to settle for third place.

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