A YELLOW BRICK LINED WITH GOLD

By Graham Potter | Sunday, January 1, 2023

The Tony and Maddysen Sears trained Yellow Brick rubber-stamped his credentials and earned a place in racing history when he landed the inaugural running of the $750 000 King Of The Mountain at Toowoomba on New year’s Eve in a most impressive fashion befitting a horse who came into the contest with a race record of four wins from five starts.

With nine of the eleven eventual runners being sent out by local stables (Kisukano was a late scratching at the barriers), the odds were stacked in favour of a local victory, but few expected any runner to dominate in the way Yellow Brick did in what had been touted as a very competitive race.

The way the race unfolded could have come right out of the Sears stable playbook.

Act 1: With two runners in the race jumping from opposite sides of the gates (Steady Ready from gate 1 and Yellow Brick from gate 9) the Sears runners wasted no time in taking the race to the opposition with Angela Jones using both Steady Ready’s natural gate speed and the advantage of the number one barrier draw to spear into the lead ... while Ben Thompson brought Yellow Brick across from his wide draw with the minimum of fuss to set up shop in second place, just a length behind his stable companion.

Act 2: Both of the Sears trained runners continued to hold the prime positions in the running throughout the middle stages of the race. Approaching the home turn, Thompson eased Yellow Brick up alongside Steady Ready. That left both of these runners with a clear passage down the home straight on straightening with both perfectly placed to launch their final effort.

Act 3: Now the plan was for both Yellow Brick and Steady ready to kick on as strongly as possible to ensure they took the race right away from the opposition. Yellow Brick and Ben Thompson took command of the race early in the home straight, but Steady Ready kept up the good fight ... and the two Sears runners remained one/two, albeit it in the reverse order to earlier in the race, until just inside the 100m.

Yellow Brick had the race won by then but the finishing effort of the hard charging Alpine Edge, who like the Sears runners had given his all in the final chase to the line, was good enough to get the better of Steady Ready for the runner-up position, with Steady Ready’ top effort being rewarded with a third place result.

So, it was first and third place for the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership. Just slightly off a perfect scripting of the race but they were ecstatic with the result.

Maddysen Sears could hardly speak in the post-race interview ... which was not surprising, because in spite of all of the noise created by the packed crowd, you would probably have been able to hears her screaming the Sears runner’s home ... as she does with unbridled enthusiasm.

Nobody is more passionate about the game than Maddysen Sears. Nobody lives the moment more than her ... and nobody loves the horse more than her ... and that applies, win or lose.

And yes, with all of the on-going chatter about top metropolitan trainers plundering provincial prize-money. it was great to see the Queensland’s richest provincial race go to a local trainer.

The celebration would have been loud and long.

In fact, it probably hasn’t finished yet.

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