To Bravery Born preserves unbeaten record
Te Akau-raced colt To Bravery Born (Snitzel) kept his unblemished record intact when he landed a 1200-metre contest at Ellerslie on Sunday, propelling him to the head of the betting for the Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m).
To Bravery Born was a comfortable winner of the first juvenile race back in August, and was later set to run in the Counties Challenge Stakes (Listed, 1100m) on November 23 before an injury took him out of contention.
Trained by Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson, To Bravery Born is now assured a start in the NZ$1 million contest after he defeated Daylight Robbery (Super Seth) by 1.3 lengths, with Dare To Proisir (Proisir) finishing 0.1 lengths away in third.
Bergerson was ecstatic after the race, particularly when explaining the unique road back to the races for the son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
“He had a bit of a strange prep to get to today, he was ready to go at Pukekohe but he twinged a muscle, so we thought his Karaka Million was over,” he said, “But, he bounced back remarkably well.
“Coming in without a trial, we were scratching our heads as to how he was going. Mark and I were talking this morning and we thought maybe he’s just a race-day horse as he’d been quite laid back at home.
“He relaxed lovely, it’ll be interesting to hear what Gryllsy thinks, up to 1200 metres as well off no trial. It was a really good effort. He’ll take a lot of improvement from that, he sprinted really well and probably came to the end of it in the last little bit.
“He’s a really nice horse going forward.”
After Sunday’s triumph, To Bravery Born joined Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Too Sweet (Satono Aladdin) at the top of the market for the Karaka Millions 2YO at $4, with fellow Te Akau runner La Dorada (Super Seth) ($5) back in third-favouritism.
To Bravery Born was bought by Te Akau’s David Ellis for NZ$200,000 from the Curraghmore draft out of Book 1 of last year’s New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale. The colt is the first winner out of Milunka (All Too Hard), she herself a half-sister to New Zealand 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Kahma Lass (Darci Brahma), as well as stakes-winning trio Distinctive Darci (Darci Brahma), Kuro (Denman) and Southern Lad (Ocean Park).