You wouldn’t blame the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership if they were already counting down to the inaugural running of the King Of The Mountain feature race which will be held at their home track at Toowoomba on December 31.
With $750 000 on offer, the King Of The Mountain will be the richest provincial race in Queensland’s history … and it will play its part in what will be a very much core Queensland News Year’s Eve celebration at Toowoomba with all of the big race runners having to be QTIS horses (ie Queensland-bred) and they all have to be trained by Queensland trainers … as dictated in the conditions of the race.
Nominations from interstate trainers with satellite stables in Queensland will not be accepted.
The final line-up of the race will be determined by the twelve slot holders who have the privilege of nominating their own choice of runner … but the Sears camp already has two runners confirmed for the big race.
This comes courtesy of the fact that the Sears team are actually one of the slot owners in their own right (they selected Yellow Brick) and they also have the support of stable client Jayven See, another slot holder, who has selected Steady Ready, one of the horses he owns and has based in the Sears stable.
Yellow Brick and Steady Ready are a formidable duo.
Yellow Brick has won four out of his fives starts, having won over distances from 1100m to 1600m on both good and heavy going. The son of The Mission has been growing in stature hand over fist in recent times … he raced four times in the last two months … and he has taken that racing schedule in his stride.
For his part, Steady Ready was something of an instant sensation after winning a trial by 13.30 lengths and then crunching his opposition with a runaway 5.75 length win on debut.
Steady Ready has only run twice since that debut win … which was all the way back in March … for two second places (including a runner-up finish in the Listed Dalrello Stakes).
While Yellow Brick will now be given a break after putting in a strong shift, Steady Ready will be back in action for the first time in two months at The Gold Coast this Saturday (November 26) where his performance will thus be monitored with keen interest … not only because of the early ‘boom’ placed on the horse … but also in terms of where he is headed.
Steady Ready, a three-year-old, will come up against older horses for the first time on Saturday … a challenge he will also have to face in the King Of The Mountain.
The only other runner confirmed for the New Year’s Eve King Of The Mountain bonanza at this stage is Apache Chase, the 2021/22 Queensland Horse Of The Year who, in stark contrast to the two Sears trained runners, is already a twenty-six race ‘veteran’ and nine-time winner (including a Group 1 win in the Kingsford-Smith Cup) … sterling credentials to be sure, but credentials which will see him have to give a good portion of weight to the bulk of his opposition on the day.
Nine slots remain to be filled with the King Of The Mountain now just thirty nine days away!
