RED WAVE AND ADELAD DO THE TONY AND MADDYSEN SEARS STABLE PROUD ON WEETWOOD DAY

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 24, 2022

The Tony and Maddysen Sears stable loaded up and came out firing at their home track of Toowoomba’s signature race meeting … Weetwood Day … on September 24 … and, while they did not hit the bullseye, they peppered the target coming home with two second places, two third places and one fourth place.

Of those results, the third place finish of Red Wave in the $125 000 Toowoomba Cup probably took pride of place but there was also obviously plenty to like about Adelad’s runner-up finish in the Pat O’Shea Plate … the traditional first two-year-old race of the season in Queensland.
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Horses don’t come more honest than Red Wave.

He came into Toowoomba Cup having finished in the top four in seven of his previous nine starts … with the only two times he finished out of the placings being in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas and the Group 1 Queensland Derby.

In the Toowoomba Cup, Angela Jones gave Red Wave ($14) every chance in the running, loping along in a comfortable fifth place for much of the trip before making up ground approaching the home turn to corner in third place.

He was then up to second briefly, but Seat Of Power ($4) … who would go on to win ... had claimed the advantage by that time and was kicking on strongly … too strongly for Red Wave to be able to cut back the deficit.

When Aussie Nugget also ran on strongly from behind, that pushed Red Wave back to third, a position she would hold comfortably to the line to claim a highly creditable result.

The third place prize-money pushed Red Wave’s career earnings past the $200 000 mark.
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Adelad’s second place in a first-time out for the two-year-olds in the Pat O’Shea Plate was superb.

Starting at odds of $5, Adelad settled fifth early as Bedaub ($4.80) and the second Sears trained runner Top Fun ($4.60) became engaged in a tough, stride for stride battle which pulled them just under five lengths clear of the chasing pack through the sweep to the home turn.

When Top Fun began to weaken on straightening, Bedaub kicked away strongly.

At that stage Adelad was still five lengths back, having raced four wide on the turn, but the son of Adelaide was only just getting into his stride and, once he had built momentum, he cut back the deficit very quickly over the final 75m to get within a diminishing 0.40 lengths of Bedaub who had done enough to claim the victory.

The only way Adelad’s effort could have been more pleasing was if he had won, but it was still a great eye-catching effort, with the promise of more to come.
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Other notable results on the days for the Sears camp include Maja Bay finishing second, just a length back, to be Water My Friend in a BM75 Handicap over 1200m.

Credit there as Be Water My Friend was winning for the third time in his last four starts.

Also, Goldeel finished third in a BM80 Handicap over 1625m and Red Bloom finished fourth in a BM75 Handicap over 1200m.