Two Starts, Two Wins
6 August, 2014
Not only did Brer make it two from two steeplechase wins today (four days apart) - his win meant that Te Akau trainer Jason Bridgman has had two starters this season for two winners! What a way to start 2014/15 ..... read more ...
Only four days after winning his first steeplechase, Brer (6 g China Cat - La Fox, by Corrupt) delivered again in the Racecourse Hotel & Motor Lodge 0 - 1 Steeplechase over 3200 metres on Aug. 6 at Riccarton.
Staging a similar front running display, Brer clocked 4:10.4 for the two mile journey on heavier going than he struck on Saturday when running 4:02.2 and won by five and a half lengths - a margin only one length inferior to his success on the first day of the Grand National Carnival.
“He made a few mistakes jumping wise today, which is unlike him but he wasn't one-hundred comfortable in the ground,†said rider Daniel Miller. “One came up to challenge at the top of the straight but I was going a bit better than him and he ran away nicely again.
“He was just going a bit too well: at the top of the straight he grabbed the bit and took off, and I thought he still had a bit of fight left,†said Miller.
Having just finished his first season of jumps riding, with eight wins, Miller notched his first consecutive winner aboard Brer: trained by Jason Bridgman for owners Peter Grieve, Kath Grieve and Doug Grieve.
“It's great for the team at Te Akau; I couldn't ask for a better opportunity than what they are giving me and I owe a big thanks to them,†said Miller.
From the family of One Thousand Guineas (Gr. 1, 1600m) winner Braless (Showoff II), his fourth dam, Brer has now won two hurdles and two steeplechases and given his jumping prowess he appears to have a bright future over the bigger fences.
“Two miles seems to be his real mark,†said stable rep Tommy Hazlett. “He got tough today when Ima Dancer had a go at him coming down the straight and I'd had a good talk to Daniel (Miller) before the race and he'd walked the track earlier in the morning and again after he rode in the hurdle race [race 1], so it's a credit to the young fella.
“Jason and Mr Grieve will make a decision on his future but for now he will probably have a spell. We have a bit of thinking to do: maybe a race like the two mile Von Doussa Steeplchase at Oakbank could be within his range or do we target something like the Waikato Steeplechase.
“We've come here, he's (Brer) done a great job, he's two for two and everybody's happy,†said Hazlett.
(Also special congratulations to Daniel Miller - he's such a hard working young man - yesterday he was with us at the trials until about 5pm as we trialled 30 horses and then he headed to Tauranga and caught the flight to Christchurch to ride at Riccarton today - a great work ethic that will take him a long way)!
Photo credit - www.raceimages.net.nz
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