The Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership had mixed fortunes at Doomben on Saturday with their boom three-year-old Steady Ready having to settle for second place on his return to action as a $1.40 favourite before their four-year-old mare Goldeel righted the ship and sent them home with an impressive winner.
“We thought she (Goldeel) would be hard to beat today with the claim,” said Tony Sears.
“She raced very well at Ipswich the other day (when finishing second over 1350m) and then was second up here over a mile. She is suited to wet ground … being a Dundeel, most of them handle the wet.
“Going forward, we’ll probably look for a 2000m race next start … or maybe an 1800m. She won’t be knocked around. We’ll just take her along quietly.
“What we did last season … we tried to get her into the Oaks. We gave her one run over 2000m and she didn’t stay. She is bred to go 2000m, but sometimes they don’t … but we’ll find out more about where she stands with that as we move forward with her.”
Goldeel is now a four-time winner from only nine starts … with two minor placings … and this latest win took her prize-money earnings through the $100 000 mark.
As far as the defeat of Steady Ready is concerned, while nothing can be taken away from the performance of Flaming Conquest, the race winner, it should be remembered that the son of Better Than Ready is still short of race experience … having only had two first-up runs and a feature race outing (when second to Exo Lady in the Listed Dalrello).
What was Sear’s initial assessment of Steady Ready’s run?
“We are a little bit concerned that he pulled up so big,” said Sears.
“I came here for a soft 5 track and the track was downgraded which didn’t help him, particularly carrying 59kg.” (Flaming Conquest carried 54.5kg and beat Steady Ready by 1.50 lengths).
“I probably would have scratched him if I knew about the track earlier … but I don’t mean that to sound like an excuse.
“We probably won’t run him again right now. He was due to run on September 17 or Weetwood Day (September 24), but the way he pulled up so big, I’ll give him a barrier trail in-between and then we’ll run him on October 1, and we’ll go from there.”
