THE Hugo Palmer stable notched up its first classic success when Covert Love won the Group 1 Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh and the team struck again on the Sunday when Home Of The Brave made all in the Group 3 Friarstown Stud Minstrel Stakes at the same venue.
The colt beat Gordon Lord Byron and Sovereign Debt by three and a half lengths and half a length, an excellent effort from a three-year-old, and he is another fine advertisement for his sire’s small first crop.
Top sprinter-miler Starspangledbanner (by Choisir) has been afflicted by much publicised fertility trouble, he returned to training after two seasons at Coolmore Stud and then headed back to Rosemont Stud in Australia, the farm where he was born.
His first crop includes the recently retired Group 1 Prix Morny scorer The Wow Signal, who will be at Haras de Bouquetot in 2016, and also the Group 1-placed, Group 2-winning Eddie Lynam-trained sprinter Anthem Alexander. His first Australian runners include the Group 3 scorer Of The Brave.
The grandson of Danehill Dancer (by Danehill) was unable to make the advertised return trip to Ireland for the 2015 breeding season, but hopefully he will be back in 2016.
Home Of The Brave, who won the Listed European Free Handicap over seven furlongs at Newmarket in April, was sixth behind Gleneagles in the Group 1 2000 Guineas and then sixth behind Muhaarar in the inaugural Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Ascot, and the timing of his first pattern success could be perfect for his yearling half-brother.
A first-crop son of Coolmore Stud’s ace miler Excelebration (by Exceed And Excel), he is catalogued as lot 26 in the opening day of the Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale, due to be held on the 15th of the month.
Their two-year-old half-brother has been named Abo Sidrah (by Dream Ahead), the Richard Hannon-trained colt made €250,000 at that Arqana sale last year, and Home Of The Brave is an €80,000 graduate of its 2013 session. These colts are their dam’s first three foals.
Sunday’s pattern scorer was bred by Anna and Etienne Drion’s Haras du Grand Chene, and his dam Blissful Beat (by Beat Hollow) is an unraced half-sister to eight winners, two of whom won at pattern level.
Rashbag (by Reprimand) won the Group 3 Prix de Conde and a listed contest, and his career tally of nine wins was matched by his full-brother Suggestive whose best win was in the Group 3 Criterion Stakes in England.
Suggestive also won a trio of listed contests and the races in which he was placed included the Group 2 Lennox Stakes, the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein, and the Group 3 Hungerford Stakes.
Their dam Pleasuring (by Good Times) was only placed and the next two dams won twice apiece, but each got stakes winners at stud and older pair both became the ancestor of a Group 1 scorer.
In fact, Gliding (by Tudor Melody), the third dam of Home Of The Brave, has both the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Stakes winner Al Shemali (by Medicean) and the Group 1 Cape Fillies’ Guineas heroine Bad Girl Runs (by Western Winter) among a long list of her stakes-winning descendants.
They also include the Group 2 scorers Crimson Quest (by Rainbow Quest) and Tungsten Strike (by Smart Strike), and the string of Group 3 winners include her daughters Bay Street (by Sharpen Up) and Rose Of Montreaux (by Habat).
The fourth dam, Pelting (by Vilmorin), was responsible for a dozen winners and one of those was Splashing (by Petingo), the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes heroine whose son Bassenthwaite (by Habitat) earned a Timeform rating of 126 when he won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes in 1984. He went to stud in New Zealand.
Home Of The Brave is a talented and improving three-year-old who may be seen next in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes. It will be interesting to see just how high in the rankings he can go, and as a Danehill-line horse from a prolific blacktype family, further pattern success could see him attract interest as a prospective stallion.