Brazen mare back on track at New Plymouth

[Wandering Eyes]

Progressive sprinting mare Ima Brazen One delivered on the promise she showed early in her career with an impressive victory at New Plymouth on Saturday.

The daughter of Brazen Beau caught plenty of attention when spacing her rivals on debut in September 2023, but subsequently faced a setback, forcing her off the scene until the following April. She added another victory to her record as a three-year-old, before heading to the paddock.

Kicking off in early November, Ima Brazen One struck unfavourable conditions at Tauherenikau and Trentham, but showed signs of being near her best last start, giving her trainer Mike Breslin confidence ahead of the competitive Rating 75 assignment.

In the hands of Lily Sutherland, the mare showed her customary early speed, powering up from barrier two to take an uncontested lead. The favourites Sindee and Egyptian Queen settled in the back half of the field and started to hunt down Ima Brazen One turning for home, but she never looked in danger, kicking clear by 1-3/4 lengths.

Breslin has always held a high opinion of the daughter of Brazen Beau and has been on a fact-finding mission with her this preparation.

“She’s a very talented, natural athlete,” he said. “She got a bone infection in her fetlock after winning her first start as a young horse, which was followed by a lot of antibiotics and box rest.

“She came back and won again quite quickly, then we put her aside and she came back as a four-year-old. We found that she seemed not to cope with the straight six at Trentham at the moment, she had a couple of runs there and was beaten, just getting lost down the chute.

“We may try her there again at a later date with blinkers on, that may help, but generally speaking she likes the rail to follow. She’s had a bit of a stop-start campaign without having some continuity, which I think she needs.

“She went into Saturday with quite a bit of improvement still to come, but I knew she had the natural ability to go close if she did everything right, which she did.

“Hopefully she can go on with it now and get to black-type, which she definitely has the ability to do.”

Bred by Brendan and Jo Lindsay, Ima Brazen One was purchased for $100,000 out of Cambridge Stud’s draft at the 2022 Karaka Yearling Sales and has earned $52,330 in eight starts for the In To Win Brazenly Syndicate.

In To Win, a growing syndication group operated by Tineke Balcombe, had one of their biggest thrills to date earlier in the season when Intention won the Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (1100m), followed by a placing in the Listed Wellesley Stakes (1100m).

The talented juvenile was comfortably up in the order of entry for the $1 million Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m), and while it was a tempting prospect for the Awapuni horseman, he opted to sit out the feature with the filly’s future in mind.

“It was totally for the horse’s welfare, I just felt that she wasn’t quite doing things right enough to cope with the trip, the right-handed track, and the thousands of people at Ellerslie,” Breslin said.

“She’s a little bit tardy going into the gates and coming out, so I just felt it would’ve blown her apart and we wouldn’t be going on any further into the season.

“It wasn’t an easy decision because I don’t often have a two-year-old good enough to run in a race like that, but it was about the horse and my gut feeling told me it was not the right race for her.

“We’ll find out whether it was the right decision in the next six weeks, she’ll hopefully go to the Matamata Breeders (Gr.2, 1200m), then on to the Manawatu Sires’ Produce (Gr.1, 1400m). She may end up being a more valuable filly than she would’ve been, had she just gone to Karaka.”

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