A PEACH OF A RIDE AND A GUTSY PERFORMANCE PUTS YELLOW BRICK BACK IN THE WINNER'S BOX

By Graham Potter | Saturday, June 8, 2024

The Tony and Maddysen Sears trained Yellow Brick made a most welcome and deserved return to the winners’ enclosure when taking out the Listed Spear Chief at Eagle Farm on June 8 to complete a feature race double on the day for the Sears yard.

A winner of six of his first eight career starts in the twelve months from May 2022 to May 2023 (including the King Of The Mountain and the Gold Coast Guineas), Yellow Brick had been winless in six starts coming into this race ... but the fact that he had finished second in four of those runs in races such as the Fred Best and the Gunsynd (both Group 3 races) and the Weetwood and the AJC Cup (both Listed races) ... you could just draw through his run in the Silver Eagle in Sydney ... confirmed that Yellow Brick had lost none of his prowess, but arguably just needed a change of luck.

Yellow Brick was third-up here. In his first two runs this prep, Yellow Brick had it all to do from a wide number fourteen barrier draw on a Heavy 10 track at the Sunshine Coast in the Listed ATC Cup, where he came up just a quarter-of-a-length shy of the win in a very brave effort behind at Witz End.

Yellow Brick then followed that up with another solid run ... but no cigar ... when finishing fifth 1.60 lengths behind Here To Shock in the Group 3 BRC Sprint, a race which gave the winner ballot-free entry into the $3 million Stradbroke.

And so, it was on to the Spear Chief, stepping up the distance test from the 1200m and 1350m of his two previous starts to 1500m, with top hoop James McDonald taking over the reins from Opie Bosson, who had ridden Yellow Brick in his two previous starts.

As it turned out, the betting boards were spot on with this one with Yellow Brick priced up at $2.50 and Wategos at $2.70 being an accurate prediction of the two-horse race that was about to unfold.

To put the challenge facing Yellow Brick in perspective, the Sears trained runner carried 59.5kg ... that’s 4.5kg more than Wategos was carrying, so this was never going to be a ‘gimme’ for Yellow Brick ... but he was clearly up for the task from the jump, starting well before McDonald settled the four-year-old son of The Mission in fifth, then sixth place ... racing some four lengths off the lead mid-race.

Racing two lengths ahead of Yellow Brick, in fourth place on the rail, was Wategos, with McDonald keeping a close watch on what his market rival was doing.

While Wategos stuck to the rail and found traffic problems approaching the home turn, McDonald, intent on taking advantage of that, now had Yellow Brick making up ground fast out wide ... to the degree that, although he cornered five wide, Yellow Brick was only a length off the lead ... and closing ... by the time the field straightened for home.

And there was no letting up from there as McDonald drove Yellow Brick into a clear lead as he tried to steak a march on his rivals.

By the time Wategos successfully negotiated a gap in-between runners, Yellow Brick was in full cry, but Wategos was still close enough to make a race of it.

If there was any dent in Yellow Brick’s commitment the pendulum might have swung the other way, but Yellow Brick was strong for the bulk of the straight, ensuring that he did enough to claim victory, albeit it by a diminishing 0.67 length margin as the weight difference between the two main protagonists began to take its till late.

In the end it was a hard-fought victory by Yellow Brick with his long sustained run under the 59.5kg burden being full of merit.

“It’s just a bit emotional,” said co-trainer Maddysen Sears post-race.

“It’s been a long time since Sydney where things didn’t go to plan ... and he’s hit wet track after wet track, and it was good to see him do that today.

“I think he got to the front a bit quicker than probably what J Mac wanted, but he was on the best horse in the race, and he rode him that way.

“He’s back!”

James McDonald gave Yellow Brick a resounding vote of confidence.

‘He’s a beautiful horse.

“If I’d ridden him before I would have had a better understanding of him and probably would have ridden him a tad differently, because he surprised me how quick he went.

‘He’s turn of foot was lethal. He put three or four on them and I thought ... ah, no. He was a sitting duck in the straight, so the performance was outstanding to stay on as he did.”

At this stage a run in the Stradbroke still hangs in the balance as he is the second emergency acceptor for Queensland’s signature race.

More articles