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By Ray Hickson

Third time’s a charm – that’s what Yellow Brick’s co-trainer Maddysen Sears hopes for her stable star in Saturday’s Listed $1 million Five Diamonds Prelude (1500m) at Randwick.

Trainer Maddy Sears (Pic: Trackside)

A year ago the gelding put in the only bad run of his career when he beat one home in the Silver Eagle and when Sears travelled him to Sydney to start his Epsom campaign in the Show County a virus caused Plan B to be enacted for the spring.

That involved a freshen and return in the Weetwood, where he ran second, at Toowoomba and he showed Sears he was on track with an easy win in the Tattersall's Members Cup (1400m) two weeks ago at Eagle Farm.

What’s different with this third trip to Sydney is that Sears and her mother Leigh are floating Yellow Brick and stablemate Red Wave rather than mixing them with outside horses on a truck.

“We’ve removed a lot of moving pieces, we’re taking him down ourselves and at this stage he’s spot on and we’re very happy with the horse we’re bringing down,’’ she said.

“There are some things you can’t control and what’s happened previously are things you can’t control.

“When he got that very minor virus, he was perfectly fine the next day, it didn’t go to plan. We had to change plans and the Weetwood was an afterthought.

"Even after the Epsom we had the Five Diamonds on our radar so when things didn’t go our way I worked backwards from the Five Diamonds.”

Yellow Brick, $3.70 with TAB on Thursday, has carried 60.5kg in both starts from a spell and drops 3kg into the Five Diamonds Prelude.

Sears, who co-trains with her father Tony, said the two lead up runs have the five-year-old in “tip top order” and is looking forward to getting him out to the 1800m at Rosehill in two weeks.

“We knew he’d get a lot of weight in the Weetwood but we thought we’d give him a crack,’’ she said.

“He raced enormous, and we were just unlucky to get a heavy downpour on the day which made it a wet track. Statistically he’s about six to eight lengths slower on a rain affected track.

“Dad and I always saw him as a 2000m horse. We originally bought him as a Derby style horse, we always said we’ve never seen the best of him and I still believe that’s the case.

“We’ve done a lot of work at home teaching him to settle and I think now that’s the way he does go, and he’s happy to settle underneath the jockey, the 1800m shouldn’t be a problem.”

What Sears likes about the Prelude is that there appears to be plenty of pace with the likes of Felix Majestic, Iknowastar and Amor Victorious engaged and she said that presents Tim Clark with a great set up for Yellow Brick.

“We wanted him to draw well but he’s probably going to get a pretty similar run to last start when he won,’’ she said.

“There’s plenty of horses that have plenty of pace that have drawn soft which is ideal. He should be fifth or sixth and then Tim will work his magic hopefully from there.”

Yellow Brick wins at Eagle Farm on October 12

Toowoomba Cup winner Red Wave is thrown in the deep end a little in the Group 3 $750,000 Cincotta Chemist Craven Plate (1800m) but Sears said it’s worth giving him the test while he’s in form.

He’s the only horse rated under 100 in the race but the only last start winner.

“There’s a lot of horses that are rated higher than him but they’re a bit out of form, I think the horse has improved again since the Toowoomba Cup,’’ she said.

“The horse is racing with so much confidence, the 1800m to 2000m is his sweet spot and why not give him a crack while he’s going so well.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting