Tony & Maddysen Sears have won their first Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas with their star gelding Yellow Brick overcoming a torrid three-wide run to show his quality and run away with a dominant 1.3 length victory when first-up for his third racing preparation.
The three-year-old gelding has now taken his career record to seven wins from nine starts, and his prize money earnings to just under $1.5 million, with a bright future ahead of him.
The son of The Mission jumped as the clear $2.50 favourite with online bookmakers, and many of the punters who took the shorts would have been wondering what Ben Thompson was doing, however, Thompson knew what he had underneath him.
As the field rounded the home turn, Thompson went for his mount and he kicked clear with 300m to go and the result was never in doubt from then on, as Yellow Brick ran through the line going as strong as any runner.
Now that Yellow Brick has won the Gold Coast Guineas, he will look to push on to the Stradbroke Handicap in June, before possibly targeting a Golden Eagle in the spring.
2023 Gold Coast Guineas Replay – Yellow Brick
With Maddysen Sears taking ownership as the main trainer for Yellow Brick, she spoke post-race about the biggest win of her career to date.
“I was watching it with Mum, and when he was caught deep I told her it wasn't looking good because it was going to be hard to win from there,” Sears said.
“But as soon as Ben put down the accelerator, he just said see you later to them.
“He'll go to the Fred Best next, then into the Stradbroke and we'll put him away after that, with the Golden Eagle his main target in the spring.”
Ben Thompson brought up his first winner of the day aboard Yellow Brick, while he took his record to four wins from six rides on the very smart gelding.
“This horse just gives you so much confidence,” Thompson said.
“With good horses you can ask that bit more of them, but I still didn't want to use up too much gas to find the front.
“The track has been playing so fair all day so even though we weren't in the best spot, I still felt we were able to control the race from there.
“That's how it panned out, I knew he was a serious horse before today and he's come back in as good as he went out.
“He's already a winner over a mile so hopefully it's the start of a big prep.”
Yellow Brick is now a $6 equal-second favourite with online betting sites in The Stradbroke Handicap futures markets.