Be Brave to land glory
UNCOMPLiCATeD and unrelenting at his best, HOME OF THE BRAVE (Goodwood, 3.0) can go one better and land this year’s running of the Qatar Lennox stakes.
Hugo Palmer’s five-year-old is well named being a son of starspangledbanner and he can strike a chord with punters on the sussex downs by improving on his gallant second in last year’s renewal behind Dutch Connection.
Home Of The Brave has been targeted at today’s prestigious contest since gamely seeing off Jungle Cat from the front in the Criterion stakes at Newmarket.
Although he may not have everything his own way at the head of affairs, he showed it is not a necessity that he has to lead when finishing second under a patient ride last year.
stall one should enable rider James Doyle to find a rhythm and a handy position in the formative stages and any ease in the ground will not concern Home Of The Brave, who is extremely versatile regarding conditions.
Limato is among the chief dangers to the selection but, although he again ran well when beaten by Harry Angel in the July Cup, he has been sent off at 4-1 or less in his last six starts and has only won once.
He is beginning to become a shade expensive to follow and would arguably want faster ground to boot. The same applies to last year’s winner Dutch Connection, who is reluctantly overlooked for that reason.
The lightly- raced and supremely talented Librisa Breeze is respected, even if stall 14 may make life a little awkward and leave him a hostage to fortune.
That said, he is a hold up horse anyway and his potent turn of foot could be employed to good effect — providing jockey Robert Winston can navigate a passage through tiring rivals.
Hopefully, Home Of The Brave will have established a significant advantage by that point and can hold on gamely to complete a hat-trick.