Brave Monarch salutes in Queensland Guineas
The Group 2 Queensland Guineas lived up to its reputation as a key Brisbane Winter Carnival lead-up, with favourite Brave Monarch overcoming trouble in running to score an impressive win at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Run over 1600 metres as a traditional stepping stone towards races like the Queensland Derby and Stradbroke Handicap, the $350,000 feature again highlighted an emerging three-year-old on the rise. Brave Monarch, trained by Chris and Corey Munce and ridden by Irishman Martin Harley, was stepping up in class, distance and tackling wet ground for the first time, but handled all three challenges with authority.
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“I tell you what at about the 1000m mark I was thinking this isn’t looking real good,” Chris Munce said.
“He got buffeted basically from the 1400m mark to the 400m. But he held his nerve and he held his ground. Its a testament to both horse and rider.”
“Martin (Harley) is always very confident and when he says something you back his judgment. He said he’s going to be three pairs back and cut the corner and get out in the straight. But then he went about six or seven pairs back!”
The Brave Smash gelding looked in serious trouble approaching the home turn after being shuffled back and repeatedly buffeted in the heavy going. However, once clear in the straight, he unleashed a sharp turn of foot to surge past his rivals and score by more than a length over Tupakara, with Call Da Vinci third.
The victory continued a strong form line through the race, which has produced horses like Kovalica that have gone on to bigger targets later in the carnival. Brave Monarch, a $20,000 Inglis Classic purchase, has now won five of seven starts and shapes as a genuine contender for richer assignments through the remainder of the winter.
“He’ll have to go around in the Fred Best and run well to get in the Stradbroke, but that is a possibility,” Munce said.
