The Emperor Rules!
Sun 18 Feb 2024
WINNER 12 OF 2024: BRAVE EMPEROR, trained by Archie Watson and ridden by Luke Morris: The 500,000 USD local Group 2 'Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup Invitational' 1,600m/1m at Doha, Qatar.
The HH the Amir Sword Festival is the most prestigious race meeting for Thouroughbreds and Arabians and is held annually at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC)'s Al Rayyan racecourse.
Fourteen of our owners travelled over to watch and were being very well looked after by the racecourse. They were joined by syndicate manager Tom, who was interviewed in the paddock pre race by presenter Tom Stanley. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day with some of the horses getting warm and a delay to the start after one broke out of the stalls meant many jockeys got off, including Luke. Brave Emperor was taking everything in his stride though.
As the race got underway, it was a pretty even break. Luke urged him along in the first furlong, to take a prominent position, tracking the leader. Coming to the home bend, Luke asked him to quicken and he soon took the lead with 300m to go. He kept on well inside the final furlong to repel the late surge from the Aidan O'Brien trained/Ryan Moore ridden, Cairo, winning by a neck. As they crossed the line, Mark Johnson, the commentator said "Brave Emperor holds on to take his international hat-trick!"
Yes, he really has won a Conditions race on home soil, a Listed race in Cagnes-sur-Mer, three Group 3 races at Deauville, Dusseldorf and Krefeld and two Group 2 races in Milan, and now Doha! The £224,000 first prize takes his career earnings to £545,000 as well - no wonder his owners are so overjoyed, watching him return to the winners enclosure..
Here you can watch the race replay and the post race presentations:
Luke said after the race: "He has just progressed and got better with every run. The track conditions were a little bit of a question mark, as most of his form is on soft ground, but he proved today that he is equally as good on this firmer surface. He is a real cool customer and is the ultimate professional."
Here's the Racing Post story from the meeting and the British trained successes: https://www.racingpost.com/news/reports/i-got-things-my-own-way-and-he-really-showed-up-rebels-romance-proves-his-class-with-stunning-amir-trophy-win-akhxP4i3YyRZ/
Read an updated story in the TDN, here: https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/hero-legend-dude-brave-emperor-has-the-world-at-his-feet/
Syndicate manager Tom was also interviewed after the race and some of his comments are included in the above story. Tom goes on to say: "I must thank the team at the Al Rayyan racecourse, we were so well looked after and had a great night celebrating. Luke gave him a great ride and nailed it in the race, he kicked at the right time and the horse was very brave today. All credit to Archie and his team for a simply tremendous campaign and congratulations to his syndicate on yet another day of celebrations!”
A simply wonderful start to 2024 for us, with record prize money of over £417,000 already earned from our 12 winners!
We have today, launched a new privately purchased colt with Archie, from the same source as Brave Emperor and you can see his details here: https://www.middlehamparkracing.net/horses/view,sergei-prokofiev-ex-boodley-colt_1554.htm