With a dozen runners set to an all-out drive before turning for home in Saturday’s $250,000 Listed Tab Ipswich Cup (2150), Angela Jones waited patiently for a run on the lightweight Red Wave.
Angled off the fence to pass the tiring leader Zoumon, Red Wave settled down for a dogfight with London Banker.
The Tony and Maddysen Sears-trained 5-year-old son of Red Dazzler rallied to defeat the 8-year-old Tavistock gelding London Banker by half-length with the 3-year-old Encryption gelding Encpoder three-quarters of a length back in third.
Winless in seventeen starts since scoring at Doomben in March last year, Red Wave advances his record to six wins, seven seconds, and eight thirds from 40 starts with earnings of $638,800.
Red Wave is a homebred for Janelle Webster who owns the son of Red Dazzler with Maddysen Sears.
“I have a share in this horse, and I do everything with him, so this win is extra special for me,” Maddysen Sears said.
“He’s the half-brother to a horse that was my first ever racehorse, so he’s very special. I thought this was his race to win. He trialled up enormous on Tuesday morning so I’ve been very confident all week - maybe a little too confident, in fact! ”
Tony Sears said his daughter deserves all the credit.
“I’d like to thank Janelle Webster, who owns this horse together with Maddy.
“It’s very exciting for them and Maddy does all the work with this horse, so I’m really pleased for her and she deserves all the credit. Everything went to plan today.”
“He put in one bad run the other day, but it was on a wet track, which he didn’t like. So we put a pen through that and were pretty confident today because he had no weight on a dry track. He jumped out on Tuesday, and he went terrifically, so the win wasn’t a big surprise.
“I’m just so happy for Maddysen; she means everything to me. Everything I do in my training career is for her, and hopefully she can take it on further. I just love her to bits.”
Angela Jones said drawing the inside barrier allowed her to settle the winner in the box seat.
“It’s a big thrill to win this race, especially for Tony and Maddy, who are such big supporters of mine,” Jones said.
“You can never count out one of their horses, even though he was coming in off two fairly average runs. They knew he was back to his best today, and barrier one was going to count for a lot. We got the sweetest run, and credit to the horse because he travels where you want him to. I didn’t have to spend a penny, it looked like it was going to be a dogfight with Kelly Schweida’s horse, but I knew we had the upper hand with the weight pull. It was a super effort from a tough horse, so full credit to Tony and Maddy. They’re happy to put me on in these big races, so I’m really happy to get the job done for them.”
Red Wave is a half-brother to Exobeach (Tycoon Ruler), who won two of three starts before tragically breaking his neck in a paddock accident.
Red Wave’s hard-knocking dam Sandy Shore won seven and placed in 11 of her 43 starts and Red Wave is her final foal.
Red Wave is the seventh stakes-winner for Red Dazzler, who was pensioned in 2022.
