THE 'GOOD THING' GETS THE JOB DONE

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, July 25, 2023

While the old chiche concedes that there is no certainty in racing, a few exceptions to the rule can be found and the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership pulled one of those out of the hat when they took the two-year-old gelding Top Fun to Gatton on July 25 to contest a QTIS Two-Year-Old Handicap over 860m.

A starting price of $1.75 was about the right odds for a horse that was coming into this Provincial race meeting contest off the back of two city, Saturday feature race outings in the Jewel Prelude at Eagle Farm (in which Top Fun finished third, just 0.75 lengths behind the useful Spin Doctor) and in the $500 000 QTIS Jewel itself at Doomben (when finishing a little over four lengths behind the winner, Mishani Missile).

There was nothing even closely resembling that level of opposition at Gatton and so the top weight of 59kg was hardly likely to trouble the son of Top Echelon … and neither was the fact that he was first-up since the Jewel as he had already had a pervious first-up win on his record.

The race ultimately panned out as the form predicted it would.

If you were a nervous punter on the short-priced favourite, you might have had a moment of concern in the first half of the race in which Top Fun was outpaced at the start and only raced in midfield after things settled down but, on straightening, Top Fun was quickly up to third, then second place and suddenly right on the heels of the leader, the $8 chance I Am Thor.

A deft shift to the outside of I Am Thor by Jimmy Orman, who had come to Gatton on a mission of his own chasing the Australian Jockey’s Premiership, had Top Fun in free air.

From that moment it was effectively ‘race over’ as Top Fun surged passed I Am Thor with the minimum of fuss and streaked away as any ‘good thing’ should to extend his winning margin to 3.30 lengths at the line … this while looking like he still had plenty in hand.

This win took Top Fun’s race record to two wins from six starts with $78 950 banked in prize-money.

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