Gr2 Green Point S – Bravura

Bravura is back in the big league.  Fitted with blinkers for the first time, the five-year-old recorded his first Feature race success since winning the Cape Derby almost two years ago when he landed the Green Point Stakes over 1600m at Kenilworth (winter course) on Saturday.  Bravura missed most of 2010 through injury, and his only previous success since his return came in a pinnacle plate at Clairwood in May.

Bravura was out of action for ten months following his Gr 1 Derby success and coincidentally made his comeback in the 2010 Green Point Stakes, finishing sixth in an event that has gained some fame for being the last race that Pocket Power would ever win.  The 2011 Green Point ended rather more successfully for Bravura, who was sent out as the 22/10 favourite for this WFA event despite having finished behind several of the same rivals when making his seasonal debut in a pinnacle plate over 1500m three weeks earlier.  Bravura’s stable companion Lion In Winter was the 4/1 second favourite ahead of 5/1 chance Tales Of Bravery, who’d won that 1500m event in October when starting for the first time in six months.  Sole three-year-old Alula Borealis was unbeaten in two minor handicaps since being gelded and attracted support to start as a 9/1 chance from an ante-post price of 20/1.

Bravura hopped out very smartly, but was soon settled into fourth spot as first Kiss Again and then 2010 Green Point runner-up Grafton Street went on to make the running.  It was a decent enough pace that was set by ten-year-old Grafton Street, with Kiss Again and Emerald Cove closest to him as Tales Of Bravery raced behind Bravura in fifth.  The likes of Chesalon and Lion In Winter were further back as Grafton Street continued to show the way around the turn and into the straight, where Bravura went to the inside for his run as Tales Of Bravery switched right to launch his challenge wider out.

Grafton Street was a spent force more than 200m out and the race was dominated thereafter by Bravura and Tales Of Bravery as those racing further back battled to launch a bid down the relatively short straight on the “old” course.  Bravura had taken the shortest way home, while Tales Of Bravery appeared to run around a little as he tried to wear the favourite down inside the last 100m.  The latter was game in defeat, but Bravura always appeared to have his measure and was punched out by Anton Marcus to win by half-a-length.  Lion In Winter was doing his best work late to finish 2.25 lengths behind Tales Of Bravery in third and will appreciate a return to a bit more ground and to the summer course with its 200m longer run-in.

Paddy O’Reilly was another 1.25 lengths away in fourth, a good effort over what seems a distance somewhat short of his best.  English Garden made no show and only beat one home, but he also prefers a longer distance.  Alula Borealis was never sighted before he finished 4.70 lengths behind the winner in seventh, but he surely isn’t by any means the best of Dean Kannemeyer’s ultra promising bunch of three-year-olds and may have run here as a “tester” so see where some very talented stable companions fit into the general scheme of things.  In any case, Alula Borealis may – as a son of 2400m Gr 1 winner Go Deputy – improve when he races beyond 1600m.

Bravura’s trainer and jockey had very different opinions as to how much of an effect racing in blinkers for the first time had on the winner.  Joey Ramsden was of the view that the headgear “made no difference whatsoever”, while Anton Marcus opined that they’d “made all the difference.”  Either way, Bravura beat all but Tales Of Bravery by a wide margin, running right up to his 113 rating, if not in fact above it, and will now be targeted at races like the Gr 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate on January 7^th and Gr 1 J & B Met three weeks later.  The latter will be run over the same course-and-distance where Bravura won the 2010 Cape Derby and there is no reason to believe he can’t be competitive in either race, although he will have to carry a 2 kgs Gr 1 winner’s penalty in the Met and obviously won’t be done any favours by it.    However, penalties are no longer cumulative in the J & B Met as they were until some four years ago and his Green Point Stakes win will have no effect on the mass which Bravura will have to carry on January 28^th.

Bravura is a five-year-old gelded son of highly successful Silvano, who has come very close to winning the South African sires’ championship in the past and who is on course for another serious assault on the title this season.  Bravura is the fourth foal, third winner, and first Stakes winner produced from Centenary mare Musing, who won only once over 1000m but who is a half sister to champion (and 2005 Green Point Stakes winner) Winter Solstice.  Bravura was bred by Veronica Foulkes at her Normandy Stud and is co-owned by her in partnership with Markus and Ingrid Jooste.  Acquired for R400 000 at the 2008 National Yearling Sale, he has won seven times from only 13 starts and earned R986 700 in stakes.

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