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Tony and Maddy Sears apply for new training partnership

7 August 2019

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By Glenn Davis

Toowoomba trainer Tony Sears hopes to begin a new chapter in his career after applying to authorities to start a training partnership with daughter, Maddy.

If approved, it’s believed it will be Queensland’s first father-daughter training partnership.

Gold Coast trainer Toby Edmonds recently began a training partnership with son Trent and landed its first metropolitan winner with Battle Strike at Doomben on Wednesday.

Maddy Sears, 22, has been working alongside her father for five years since leaving school as a teenager and thought the time was right to start a training career.

She was licensed to train last week and has a small team of four horses in work at Toowoomba.

“I was in an office job selling advertising and got sick of it,” Maddy Sears said.

“I’ve competed in show jumping all my life so when I left the job I went to work with Dad as an interim measure.

“I loved it so much I decided to train by myself and my biggest supporter was Mum (Leigh Sears).”

A horror barrier prevented Maddi Sears from saddling her first metropolitan runner, The Real Boss, in the Benchmark 75 Handicap (1050m) at Doomben on Saturday.

The Real Boss was second emergency but had gained a start before being scratched after drawing barrier 18.

Tony Sears has only one Doomben runner, Mail Escort, who will be ridden by promising apprentice Corey Bayliss in the Gollan Racing Handicap (1200m) at Doomben.

The five-year-old gelding has three wins and five placings from 13 starts and is coming off a last start second in a Class Three at Toowoomba on July 27.

“He’s a very good chance from a good draw and with no weight,” Tony Sears said.

“He was short of a run and had a big weight at Toowoomba last run.”

Sears has been a successful trainer for 25 years with his biggest win from Choice Bro in Listed Weetwood Handicap at Toowoomba in 2016.

He also won two Listed races with Pardoe in The Phoenix and Oxlade Stakes at Doomben in 2017.

Sears was in red hot form last season becoming the first trainer to win the QTIS premierships for both two and three-year-olds.

He had eight two-year-old winners earning $125,650 in bonus prizemoney and won 11 three-year-old races picking up more than $190,000 in bonuses.

Racing Queensland webnews    August 8