Bravo Charlie looked a forlorn hope at the top of the straight, but eventually descended with a powerful finish to score a stylish win in the $75,000 Novice race over 1600m on Sunday.
After scoring his maiden win over 1400m a month ago, the Myboycharlie three-year-old replicated the same pattern of coming from off the pace when stepped up to the mile to land the money with equal aplomb.
The Michael Clements-trained galloper began well to settle in the box-seat early, but overraced just a tad when Free Happy (Manoel Nunes) slammed on the brakes in front of him. As the pace slackened up further, Bravo Charlie ($44) kept sliding further off the pacesetters, worryingly looking like he had his work cut out at a crucial time.
But his hopes were raised exponentially when most of the early playmakers in front came to the end of their tether down the home straight.
After wresting the lead from the 1000m pole in a bid to whip up more speed into the stop-start affair, Top Of The Town (Michael Rodd) was running on fumes – and eventually ran last. A big upset was on the cards when $131 shot Masurao (A’Isisuhairi Kasim) took over and struck the front, holding $12 favourite Mr Fantastic (Barend Vorster) safely at bay 200m out.
It wasn’t to be as Bravo Charlie had the race shot to pieces when he suddenly appeared between runners, sprouting wings to a comfortable 1 ½ length-win from Masurao. Pusaka (Rueven Ravindra) charged home late to run third another neck away. The winning time was 1min 36.86secs.
Currently in Australia, Clements was not on hand to lead in his seventh winner for 2015, but would have certainly given Munro a big thumbs-up for the patient ride.
“I was in a lovely spot but he got shuffled back to be near last rounding the home turn. It looked like we were in trouble at that stage,” said the British rider.
“But to his credit, he didn’t hesitate to take a run between horses, which is a good sign of confidence for such a young horse. But he was probably made to look good with the other horses going up and down in front.
“Still, he’s a nice horse and he’s again used his turn of foot to score a nice win. Mike will be pleased with that.”
With that second consecutive win and a second on debut from four starts, Bravo Charlie has now taken his earnings around $5,000 short of the $100,000 mark for the Bravo Charlie Stable.
