Star young Queenslander Yellow Brick will have his final winter carnival start on Saturday before being aimed at a Golden Eagle campaign in the Sydney spring.
The Tony and Maddysen Sears-trained Toowoomba three-year-old is fifth emergency for the $3m Stradbroke and appears destined to miss the field and instead will run in the $200,000 Group 3 Gunsynd Classic on the same day.
Yellow Brick is the raging $1.60 favourite to win the 1600m set weights race for three-year-olds at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Originally, it was intended Yellow Brick would then have another winter carnival mission in the Winx Guineas on the Sunshine Coast, three weeks after Stradbroke day.
However, Tony Sears said there were bigger fish to fry in spring.
Southeast Queensland racing identity, former jockey manager and racehorse owner Gino Loiero convinced the Sears camp that Yellow Brick should be spelled after Saturday to give him the best possible preparation for the Golden Eagle in October.
“Gino is a freak at planning and plotting the campaigns of horses,” Sears said.
“He kept telling me if that I was to go to the Winx Guineas then that was going to take this horse into July and it wouldn’t allow me to really spell him properly before the spring.
“The Winx Guineas is a $300,000 race but the Golden Eagle is a $10m race.
“You don’t get many opportunities to run for $10m.
Tony (right) and Maddysen (left) Sears and Yellow Brick’s jockey Ben Thompson. Picture: Grant Peters-Trackside Photography
“There is a chance we might race him first-up in the Weetwood Handicap in Toowoomba and then aim to get him into the Golden Eagle third-up, because I don’t think he goes as good second-up as he does third-up.”
As for Yellow Brick’s prospects as favourite on Saturday, Sears said: “He should be beating them, surely.
“He certainly hasn’t gone backwards.”
Jockey Ben Thompson also has an air of confidence about Yellow Brick’s chances on Saturday.
After Yellow Brick couldn’t lock in a Stradbroke spot when finishing second to Hawaii Five Oh in the Fred Best Classic, Thompson is glad Hawaii Five Oh is in the Stradbroke rather than the Gunsynd on Saturday.
“This field on Saturday is a similar field to what he has been taking on, without Hawaii Five Oh, thank goodness,” Thompson said.
“This looks a lovely race for him.
“He is relaxing really well and that might have cost us a little bit last time, as he is not settling as close as he used to.
“But it’s also a good thing as he’s not the aggressive Yellow Brick of his early days.
“He is turning into a proper racehorse.”