TOOWOOMBA BASED TRAINERS LOAD UP AND CLAIM A ‘FIFER’ AT THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN MEETING

By Graham Potter | Monday, January 1, 2024

The King Of The Mountain (KOTM) race-day provided a big day out at Toowoomba as it launched racing in Queensland into the new year, and locals trainers very much had their say on the day.

After final acceptances, Toowoomba based trainers saddled fifty-nine out of the eighty-eight runners at the meeting. That means they loaded up just over two-thirds of the day’s runner, so it was not a great surprise that they made merry by winning the first five races on the card.

One by one, Mark Currie (Ten Trinity Square), Michael Nolan (New Joy), Kevin Kemp (Ozarch), John Thomas (Tuhinga) and Matt Kropp (Rowdash) put their names on the scoreboard.

Not only that, but in all of those five races, Toowoomba trainers saddled the trifecta with Team Sears, Corey and Kylie Geran, John Dann and Paul Wallace chiming in with placed runners. Team Geran, in fact, finished second on no less than three occasion.

The sixth race was the KOTM, where a second place with Steady Ready (behind Rothfire) was a great result for the Toowoomba based Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership.

The Robert Heathcote trained Rothfire started a three-race run of victories for the visitors, with the well-travelled John Manzelmann’s Tiger Legend and John Gilmore’s Decarbonise taking out the last two races, both at double figure odds, Decarbonise, in fact being the longest priced winner on the day at $21.

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