Quirky character ready for Cup challenge

[Wandering Eyes]

Joshua Brown (NZ) (Dalghar) likes to get his own way and tyro trainer Lance Gussey is happy to go with the flow with his black-type contender.

The mercurial son of Dalghar has come a long way in a short time and at New Plymouth on Saturday will face his sternest test yet in the Listed Sinclair Electrical & Refrigeration Opunake Cup (1400m).

Despite his quirky temperament, Joshua Brown has an abundance of ability and has fashioned the tidy record of three wins and six placings from 12 appearances.

“He’s very hard to train, we couldn’t do exhibition gallops with him because he just won’t do it so he pretty much trains himself,” Gussey said.

“We’ve tried a number of times to gallop with other horses, and they’ve taken off and he’s stayed behind and watched them go.

“He’s really lazy and is pretty smart. He just does enough, and we haven’t seen his full potential yet.”

Joshua Brown will be making his second sojourn to the Central Districts and lessons learned from a first unsuccessful trip have forced a change to the travel plan.

“When we went to Trentham, we thought we’d have a bit of a holiday, but he didn’t eat and wasn’t himself,” Gussey said.

“This time, we’re going to go down on Saturday and come back the same day.”

Joshua Brown has been in good form this preparation and was a winner at Te Rapa two runs back, before a return to the Hamilton course was rewarded with a runner-up finish in the Te Awamutu Cup (1600m).

He has been ridden in all but one of his starts by Lynsey Satherley, who will continue her association with the five-year-old at New Plymouth.

“I’m extremely happy with him and I can’t complain, he’s doing everything right and we couldn’t have asked for anymore. He hasn’t felt those last two races at all,” Gussey said.

“We’ve been completely surprised by everything we’ve got from him, we didn’t know he was going to be this good and we’re having a great ride with him.”

Co-bred by Gussey’s late father Ron who trained for more than 30 years, Joshua Brown’s future post-Saturday has yet to be confirmed.

“I’m new to the industry and ask for a lot of advice. Lynsey picked this race out for him, and we’ll just wait and see what happens,” he said.

Out of Midnight Mistress, Joshua Brown’s half-sister She’ll Be Right, by Eminent, has been a winer for Gussey who also has a yearling filly out of the late Savabeel mare by Satono Aladdin.

View the full article