Brave Move is on the up
Ken Nicol
Brave Move scored her sixth win in a row and added a Grade 3 to recent Listed honours with another easy victory in the Final Fling Stakes at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Things did not go her way in the running as she was trapped a bit wide in the seven-horse party and Aldo Domeyer moved her around runners on the bend to sit up handy as Konkola and Dynasty’s Blossom cut out the early fractions.
She clearly had a ton of running in her, but when classy Fresnaye moved up on her inside with 200m to go the match race some had anticipated looked on the cards.
But within a few strides Brave Move made a mockery of that notion and she bounded clear to win by 2.25 lengths and underline her top-class potential.
Trainer Adam Marcus described her after the race as “a very special filly”.
“She will get a rest now, but I am looking forward to the big Grade 1 fillies races of the Cape season,” he added.
Half an hour earlier Candice Bass Robinson’s Freedom Charter had got up in the last couple of strides to win the Grade 3 Champagne Stakes.
Snaith runner Nordic Breeze won this race by a whisker a year ago and looked nailed on to score again when she went a length clear inside the final 200m.
But Freedom Charter has been campaigning over middle distances and used that stamina to good effect when quickening well over the closing stages to get up by a short-head.
Earlier, the same stable unveiled impeccably bred juvenile filly Varsity Lover, who made an impressive debut in a Maiden Plate over 1000m.
The R3.6-million yearling was always travelling well a couple of lengths off the pace set by debutante Pippielangkous and, under a far-from-punishing Domeyer ride, won fluently by 1.26 lengths.
Assistant trainer Melissa Arnold said the daughter of Captain’s Lover has “a very relaxed temperament, and should go over a lot further”. The jockey concurred, saying this is a “very nice filly with a lot of ability”.
Towards the end of the day the Brett Crawford stable reached a milestone when Nebula won a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1600m going away to record the yard’s 100th winner for the season.