COASTAL COWBOY PREVAILS IN A TIGHT FINISH

By Graham Potter | Thursday, March 5, 2026

Coastal Cowboy ($3.20) claimed a Maiden Handicap win over 1420m at Grafton on March 5 when doing just enough to see off the fast finishing Kiss'N Dance.

This was the son of So You Think’s first run for the Tony and Maddysen Sears training partnership with the lightly raced three-year-old only having one prior run for the Adam Campton yard before changing stables.

There was four months in-between those two starts with Team Sears giving Coastal Cowboy one trial leading into his debut for the stable.

Coastal Cowboy landed in the leading line which had four horses vying for the lead until the $151 outsider Bee Sun gained the ascendency with the $2.35 favourite Basset Choice tracking that one in second place.

That allowed Dylan Turner to settle Coastal Cowboy in a comfortable third position racing a length-and-a-half off the leader.

The field packed up markedly approaching the home turn and, with only three lengths covering the pack on straightening, runners were lining up to stake their claims … and the chase down the straight became something of a cavalry charge with a line of runners spread right across the track.

Coastal Boy was on of those runners, and the inexperienced runner showed plenty of grit, running on strongly enough after being slightly impeded at the top of the straight.

He had to maintain that spirited run because of the highly competitive nature of the finish … he simply couldn’t afford to miss a beat … and he was rewarded for that when he slipped into the lead with 180m left to run, clearly going better than those runners immediately around him.

But Coastal Cowboy still had to deal the emerging threat of Kiss’N Dance.

The $12 chance, who was having his first start for trainer Fleur Henley, had turned for home in last place as the widest runner in the straight, but jockey Peter Graham immediately started putting Kiss’N Dance through his gears … and it didn’t take long for the son of Exceedance to hit top gear.

Coastal Cowboy was clinging on and Kiss’N Dance was simply flying over the closing stages and would have won it in another stride but, in the end, Coastal Cowboy’s concentrated, solid effort throughout carried the day by a diminishing 0.15 lengths.

Maddy Sears