THE POOL BOY MAKES A SPLASH IN TOWN

By Graham Potter | Saturday, February 14, 2026

The Pool Boy, a lightly raced three-year-old gelding trained by Tony and Maddysen Sears, scored his second win in his last three starts … and his third win in only seven career starts … when he scored a tough, come from behind victory in a QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1200m at Eagle Farm on February 14.

The son of Too Darn Hot was coming back in distance here … from 1400m to 1200m … but the soft going arguably made it more of a test than that, and The Pool Boy, who started at odds of $11, simply thrived over the concluding stages, taking on the challenge of sweeping past the four runners in front of him with 200m left to run with some aplomb to score by 1.22 lengths.

Mark Du Plessis had allowed The Pool Boy plenty of time to find his feet and settle into a comfortable rhythm, letting the Sears trained runner bowl along towards the rear of the field, all of six lengths off the lead as the field went down the back straight.

Approaching the home turn, The Pool Boy had halved that deficit behind the leader, but he still had four horses spread across the track in front of him, meaning that Du Plessis would have to be deliberate and decisive in plotting the path home and The Pool Boy would then have to be ready to put in the effort required to make up the necessary ground to turn his run into a winning result.

Du Plessis bided his time in the first half of the straight before making the decision to move The Pool Boy on an inward path angling into a gap between two runners.

With that decision made, The Pool Boy had to respond and he did just that, taking the run with meaning and accelerating quickly to move up alongside … and then past … the long-time leader Blitzburg (another $11 chance) to hit the front with 100m left to run.

Blitzburg responded briefly to The Pool Boy’s surge, but all the momentum was now with The Pool Boy who stretched his advantage out to that 1.22 lengths at the line.

That was the distance back to the $3.80 second favourite Mrs Goldberg who went past Blitzburg late to secure second place with Blitzburg’s effort earning him third place.

The $3 favourite Dragonne Rouge failed to flatter and finished out of the placings.

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