BEAU DAZZLER IS KARAKA MILLION BOUND

By Graham Potter | Friday, December 22, 2023

Beau Dazzler, the New Zealand bred two-year-old from the Tony and Maddysen Sears stable, will be heading to New Zealand next month to tackle the Karaka Million at Ellerslie on January 27.

Beau Dazzler has had an eventful two career starts to date.

On debut, the son of Ardrossan simply refused to stride out early and was left tailed off all of eleven lengths behind the leader.

When he did settle and pick up his stride the colt quickly moved up, tagged onto the field and then continued his run, gaining ground throughout and, in spite of being five wide on straightening, he kept coming to surge right into contention.

Ultimately, Beau Dazzler was only edged out on the line by a short-head margin, an outcome which strongly suggested that Beau Dazzler’s erratic behaviour in the early running probably cost him the win.

“He was very unlucky in his first start,” said co-trainer Tony Sears. “He tailed right off ... didn’t go at all ... and then hit the line good. He was so far back he was even out of the camera view there at one stage at Toowoomba.”

The positives in that run prompted the Sears stable to send Beau Dazzler straight to town and straight into feature race company where he only faced three opponents in the Listed Phelan Ready at Eagle Farm ... and this time the result would go in his favour.

Not that it was ever a smooth ride for Robbie Dolan, with Beau Dazzler’s greenness being very evident when he shifted ground more than once in the home straight, but, in the end, in spite of seemingly trying to make life difficult for himself, he was just too good for the opposition as he put a Black Type win was on the board in only his second start.

“We knew he would probably settle towards the tail again, but we also knew he would be strong at the finish. He is bred to go a lot further,” said Tony Sears.

“We’re aiming him at the Karaka Million in New Zealand now.

“We bought him in New Zealand last year for that race and we’ve paid up for him.

“We are giving him a week in the paddock ... and then the plan is he will have a run on January 6 (in the Gold Nugget at the Gold Coast) just to tighten him up for Karaka ... and then he’ll probably head over there on January 20 or 21, about a week before the race.

‘We are looking forward to taking him over there.”

Travelling a two-year-old from Queensland to New Zealand can have its pitfalls, but it also can produce a winner as trainer Liam Birchley has shown.

Birchley has won the Karaka Million on two occasions ... with Sister Havana in 2010 (ridden by the late Stathi Katsidis) and with Hardline in 2015 (ridden by Damian Browne)

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