Gone too soon, Wootton Bassett (GB) sired four of the eight winners at Newcastle on Saturday and then overnight delivered a knockout blow to Europe’s best sprinters when four year-old stallion Comanche Brave captured the Group I July Cup (6f) at Newmarket.
The July Cup featured a star studded field that included all three Group I sprint winners from Royal Ascot in Venetian Sun (Commonwealth Cup), Almeraq (QEII Jubilee) and Mission Central (King Charles III Stakes), plus Japanese raider Satono Reve.
The Donnacha O’Brien trained Comanche Brave is a well-travelled campaigner having started his year with a couple of runs in Dubai before travelling to Hong Kong where he ran fifth to Ka Ying Rising in the Group I Chairman’s Sprint Prize.
On his return he won the Group II Greenlands Stakes (6f) at The Curragh and then ran seventh in the Group I Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee with bookmakers sending him out at 11-1 for this assignment with Billy Loughnane to ride.
He produced a career best performance to win by a length over Venetian Sun and Satono Reve.
“Comanche Brave travelled beautifully and Billy [Loughnane] gave him a lovely ride. It was an easy watch,” said Donnacha O'Brien.
“There's not much margin between these sprinters, and he's won a Group Two so where else is there to go but keep trying to win Group Ones? We weren't afraid to try it, and I said to Billy just let him jump. I thought he travelled very impressively. He doesn't do a lot when he gets to the front, but I thought he was impressive.”
Bred by the O’Brien family’s Whisperview Trading, Comanche Brave races for Muhaideb Almuhaideb and has the overall record of four wins and six placings from 15 starts.
He is the best of three winners from three foals to race from Group III winning Holy Roman Emperor mare Ishvana who traces back to the family of Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente.
Comanche Brave is the 22nd Group I winner for Wootton Bassett, who died in Australia last September with his final small crop of foals to be born in Australia this spring.
