A LISTED WIN IN TOWN AND WINS AT THE GOLD COAST AND TOOWOOMBA. THAT'S PRETTY GOOD WORK

By Graham Potter | Saturday, December 9, 2023

On December 9, while Beau Dazzler was setting a high bar with his win in the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes at Eagle Farm, Cape Crusader and Most Dazzling were also adding their names on the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership honour roll for the day with wins at the Gold Coast and Toowoomba respectively.

Cape Crusader claimed his first career win in a Maiden Handicap over 1700m.

The lightly raced three-year-old son of Heroic Valour had shown glimpses of form before. While not being definitive, his runner-up finish and third place finish in two of his last three starts going into his Gold Cost assignment was enough to see him marked up as a warm $3.40 favourite for the contest with Kotoni on the next line of betting at $5.

It was Kotoni who speared into the early lead with Emily Lang settling Cape Crusader in a comfortable third spot, just two lengths off the leader early on.

That deficit became three lengths as Kotoni extended his lead in the back stretch but, when the field began to bunch up approaching the home turn with Kotoni being given a breather, Lang had Cape Crusader right there, perfectly poised to unleash his challenge.

And she didn’t wait long to do that ... quickly sending Cape Crusader up to put the pressure on Kotoni as the field straightened for home.

These two runners went stride for stride in the early part of the straight and then, just when it seemed that Cape Crusader would go past Kotoni, the latter battled back and came on strongly again, taking their fight all the way to the line in a spirited contest in which neither was prepared to give ground.

In the end, the result came down to a bob of the head with Cape Crusader getting the decision by a very narrow margin.

It was a gutsy performance by Cape Crusader under a solid ride by Lang.
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For Most Dazzling’s part, his win at Toowoomba later that day in a BM65 Handicap over 1200m was yet another reward for the son of Red Dazzler who, while not setting the town alight, quietly goes about his business of making sure he keeps his win percentage in a really positive mode.

This latest win was his fifth in only sixteen starts and it also pushed his career earnings past the $100 000 mark.

Interestingly enough, Most Dazzling has had a different riders aboard in each of his wins. Luke Tarrant, Angela Jones, Jimmy Orman and Georgina Carwright had done the honours before ... and this time the Sears camp handed the reins to apprentice Tyler Leslight, whose 3kg claim provided welcome weight relief ... and arguably a winning edge ... to Most Dazzling who had been set to carry 60.5kg.

Most Dazzling was easy to back at $8, which made the watch even more enjoyable for those who had taken those odds.

Put into an immediate lead by Leslight, Most Dazzling had to cope will some early pressure as several runners raced close-up, snapping at his heels, but Leslight just let Most Dazzling get on with his task at a gallop which was strong enough to start sorting the field out.

By the approach to the home turn, Most Dazzling was now stretching the field out and, on straightening, his superiority became even more clear as he basically left the others behind chasing a share of the minor placings.

The $3 favourite Beebee Dazzler was the best of those chasers, being the only runner capable of staying in some sort of touch with the Sears trained winner (the winning margin was 1.80 lengths).

The rest were very much ‘also rans.’

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