Brave Mead runs his rivals ragged in Manfred Stakes victory
The Group 3 Manfred Stakes set up to be a good race between up-and-coming three-year-olds, but no one told Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, as Brave Mead (+400) ran his rivals into the ground and won in dominant fashion first-up on Friday.
Blake Shinn took control of the race early with the son of Brave Smash and after Steparty (+125) settled outside of the leader and was over racing, it was a hard watch for favourite punters for most of the race.
As soon as the leader upped the ante and kicked clear around the home turn, the race favourite started to struggle and dropped out of the race sharply.
Meanwhile King Colorado (+900) ran home strongly from the back of the field to set up a stable quinella and produced a ‘back me next start’ type of run on return.
However, with the rest of the well fancied runners struggling, there were no worries about the winner, as Shinn eased him down in the final 50m and sat up nicely for the photo finish.
2024 Manfred Stakes Replay – Brave Mead
Ciaron Maher was on course at Caulfield to represent the stable and he spoke post-race about both Brave Mead and King Colorado.
“Brave Mead, he’s super, great ride by Blake Shinn,” Maher said.
“I said to Blake ‘take the luck out of it, roll along, he’s fit and well’, and he took the bit between his teeth early and that was the winning move.
“We’ve got a few owners who are pretty excited, and he was only a cheap enough horse, but he’s been very good.
“He’s comeback well and he has the residual (fitness).
“King Colorado was super. It was great to see him finish off so well and the Australian Guineas is his target.
“For this guy (Brave Mead), we will look to keep him to the sprinting trips.”
Blake Shinn rode Brave Mead perfectly per Maher’s instructions, and he spoke post-race.
“Once he was afforded the lead… I was able to roll at our own tempo and with the favourite outside us, with residual fitness we used that to our advantage,” Shinn said of Brave Mead’s run.
“I had in the back of my mind that could happen, but when he (Steparty) was out there and over racing, I had more confidence that we could beat him that way.
“We rode it as we seen it out there, and thankfully the horse was able to get the job done.”
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