It is not often a horse gets a second chance at running in one of Australia’s feature handicaps.
Father-and-daughter training combination Tony and Maddysen Sears were left devastated when Yellow Brick missed gaining a start in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm 12 months ago.
Move forward a year and Yellow Brick is safely in Saturday’s Group 1 contest for which he is one of the outsiders at $34 in latest betting behind the $3.10 favourite War Machine.
“Last year we were devastated when he was second emergency and didn’t get a start,” Maddysen Sears said.
“So, this has been his sole goal this time in.”
After a successful Brisbane Winter Carnival last year, Yellow Brick campaigned in Sydney during the spring, finishing fourth in the Five Diamonds Prelude at Randwick and then third in the Five Diamonds at Rosehill.
Given a break, Yellow Brick ran at the Magic Millions Carnival during January before another break with a sole focus on running in this year’s Stradbroke Handicap.
Yellow Brick had three trials leading into his sole lead-up outing when finishing 11th to War Machine in the Group 3 BRC Sprint (1350m) at Doomben on May 24.
The five-year-old has since been back to the trials, having a bowl around in a Doomben 1000m heat on heavy ground on June 3 with Saturday’s rider Andrew Mallyon in the saddle.
“The horse is flying,” Sears said.
“He had a nice little tick over trial last week just so he would technically be third-up into the Stradbroke.
“And Andrew galloped him on Tuesday morning and he said that was the best he’s ever felt.
“Rather than race him, we’ve done a lot more work with him at home and given him the trials.
“He looks amazing and he’s ready for Saturday.”
