Easy as they Come for Sears
RACING: Wins don’t come much easier to start a Saturday evening of racing at Clifford Park.
Easy Come ($1.90) justified his favourite tag in the TAB Class 2 Handicap (1000m), for co-trainers Tony and Maddysen Sears.
Under the urgings of apprentice Isabella Rabjones, the four-year-old was able to get to the front, racing alongside main rival Hautclere ($2.90).
The pair came to the turn with a sizeable lead on the rest of the field, where Easy Come kicked into overdrive, booting away to score by 4 lengths to Hautclere, with Diggity ($11) a further 2 ½ lengths back in third.
Maddysen said sound judgment from Rabjones, coupled with a strong turn of foot, helped the gelding pick up his second career win in style.
“When Hautclere came up on the outside, Isabella made a good judgment to not get into a speed battle,” Sears said.
“They were able to settle in front and then kicked away.
“At his last start he was pretty unlucky. Jet A One, another of ours, came back on top of him and he did a lot wrong.
“On Saturday he did everything right and the race suited him perfectly.
“We’ve always had a high opinion of him and he looks like one of our better horses.
“He’s still quite young in mind and might take a bit more time, but we think he has the potential to win a Saturday race.”
Octavian ($3.30) continued on his winning way, making it back-to-back wins after blowing his rivals out of the water in the Neil Mansell Concrete Class 5 Handicap (1640m).
The Lindsay Hatch-trained gelding sat outside the leader Shadow Vision ($21), before Alex Patis went for home approaching the bend, racing away to score by 5 ¾ lengths.
Just as the night looked set to conclude without incident, a wild sequence of events led to a drama-packed final race of the card.
As the field was almost set to jump in the Weston Kitchens Maiden Handicap (1870m), the Diane Murphy-trained Ethereum got under the barriers and galloped a considerable distance, forcing his late scratching.
The Clerk of the Course was also dislodged from their mount, resulting in transport to hospital for a leg injury.
Once the race finally got underway favourite Weka Pass ($2.35), also trained by Murphy, began to buck not long after the start and forcing the gelding to take no competitive part and severely hampering Notoriety ($12).
Towards the front of the field, Effexx ($4) took the length of the Clifford Park straight, but eventually ran down leader Lunafreya ($4) by a long head, with Notoriety finishing a luckless third, just 1 ½ lengths behind the winner.
# MATT Kropp took out the main event of the five-race program at Chinchilla, with Splitz saluting in the Open Handicap (1200m).
Despite being lumped with 62.5kg, the six-year-old scored a ½ length victory from Red Devil.
David Reynolds and Leeanne McCoy took honours for the day, with the pair combining for a double with Queenofmainstreet and Crafty Aquila.