Blinkered Bravura!

Victory! Anton Marcus, Derek Brugmann,Joey & Fiona Ramsden with daughters.

A champion trainer and a champion jockey agreed to differ on a piece of equipment. The end result was Bravura’s brilliant victory in the Gr2 Green Point Stakes at Kenilworth on 19 November. The race also marked the Silvano gelding’s first Graded race win since the Investec Cape Derby in 2010.

It was also Joey Ramsden’s second Gr2 victory within the space of a week  and another superb feature win for Anton Marcus. And we are still no wiser as to whether the blinkers worked the real magic! But who really cares?

A glance at his race record tells us just what a truly outstanding racehorse Bravura really is. This was the Normandy Stud bred’s seventh win from thirteen starts and he touched the stars as he reached the million rand stake barrier.

Bravura captured the public imagination when he stepped on to the stage as the unbeaten winner of that memorable Derby at end January 2010. His health problems were obviously once a headache for his astute  trainer and his gaps between races and his on-off participation in past big races have been the fodder of rumour and urban myth. This has ranged from collapsed lungs to broken legs. But today his general health is described by Joey as ‘fabulous’ and ‘the soundest he has ever been,’ and he quips that he (the horse that is) only suffers ‘when the pollen count is high.’

The Ramsden string is peaking at the right time. He produced Shades Of Indigo to win the Gr2 Merchants at perverse odds last Sunday and trained the first and third runner in the Green Point Stakes today.   He has trained top horses like Tara’s Touch, Starlit and Major Bluff in great seasons gone by and knows what it takes in terms of patience and preparedness.

Don't write him off! Lion In Winter ran a great third-one for the notebook.

Programming highly rated horses of the ilk of this pair is not rocket science either and both Bravura and Lion In Winter will likely follow the only reasonably navigable route available to them – the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and then a swoop into the J&B Met. While Bravura is more of a talking horse and holds the edge in straight A’s achieved, Lion In Winter has a lot more mileage on the clock and has been a slower maturer. There is little between them on paper. Lion In Winter may even be a better option with the longer run in of the Met summer course and the Western Winter gelding is likely to carry less weight in the big race. Lest we forget his brilliant effort in the 2011 Met!

The Green Point Stakes is a fair pointer to the season ahead. On this score, Vaughan Marshall and Glen Kotzen would have come away from the race feeling pleased, while Mike Bass may be scratching his head at this stage. Roy Eckstein’s Kahal gelding Tales Of Bravery has trained on into a smart brave horse and he gave Anton Marcus a momentary fright yesterday. The Marshall flagship may just be off the very best but his hyena approach means that he is always on hand to pick up the scraps when heads are turned. He appears to have recovered from an abortive Gauteng campaign.

The Kotzen’s stayer Paddy O’Reilly finished with a late rattle to run on into the fourth spot. This was a highly commendable run over a distance short of his optimum trip. The lack of depth in the Mike Bass attack this season was underlined again when all four of his runners failed to make the frame. His major Met hope English Garden would have done his big race prospects no favours with a dismal showing in second last spot, while Super Storm is always questionable at this level -although he did best of the quartet. The choicely-bred Chesalon finished 5 lengths off and will appreciate another 400m to show his best.

Dean Kannemeyer’s Alula Borealis ran on steadily late in the race to finish 4,7 lengths off the winner in fifth and while he was well weighted here, he should be a different horse come the Derby. Justin Snaith’s Emerald Cove was poorly drawn at 12 but stayed on late for a five lengths off the winner finish.

Easy Does It. Divine Jet on track for a Guineas showdown.

The sad loss of champion sire Jet Master earlier this week was put into perspective by yet another stunning performance by the unbeaten Divine Jet. Lady Christine Laidlaw’s high profile colt was the subject of one of the greatest bidding duels of all time when being sold for a record R4 million at the 2010 National Yearling Sale and while that price may well have been the product of personalities, his subsequent R1 million tag at the Graham Beck Dispersal Sale earlier this year looks a bargain. He annihilated an admittedly ordinary field in the MR80 Handicap over 1400m, but it was the arrogant classy manner of the way he changed legs late and strode away to put daylight between himself and the rest, that spoke of a potential Guineas favourite. This was a third straight win for the Highlands bred. Justin Snaith’s Amber Palace ran a shocker to run closer to last and he looks to be one of the season’s overrated flops.

Karl Neisius rode a Jet Master double in the fifth and sixth races and his ride on Jet Into The Wind for Mike Bass one race earlier, was masterful. He made all the pace to deny an improved Chrysalis who should be watched for consistency. The winner’s stablemate ran his usual game race in third, while Joey Ramsden’s Dead Cert flew late into fourth spot and he is slowly dropping in the ratings. One to be with in the minor races ahead!

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