Middleham Park making more travel plans for Brave Emperor

Brave Emperor could eventually travel even further afield in search of more Group-class glory after his conclusive victory in the Premio Vittorio Di Capua at San Siro.

The Archie Watson-trained gelding is incredibly well-travelled and has had a remarkable season, winning six times in four different countries.

He has scored three times at Group Three level, taking the Dr Busch-Memorial at Krefeld, the Prix Daphnis at Deauville and the Grosser Preis der Landeshauptstadt Dusseldorf.

He then stepped up to Group Two level in Italy at San Siro on Sunday and again did Middleham Park Racing proud when striding to a four-length win under usual pilot Luke Morris.

“You wouldn’t quite believe the season he’s had. We’ve kept on pitching him in and giving him another inch of rein and he’s just kept on giving and kept on winning,” said Tom Palin of the ownership group.

“Any task Archie seemed to throw at him, he’s just been able to respond, he is an absolute dude of a horse. We’ve sent him to Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, he doesn’t know how to run a bad race. He’s a credit to everyone around him – and more importantly to himself.

“Every time he goes racing, Luke keeps getting off and saying ‘he’s feeling faster’, he’s just improving all the time. Luke got off him this time in Italy and said ‘he’s really starting to feel like a good horse now’.

“Usually with good horses you get the impression that they’re good quite quickly, but this horse is a bit quirky in that he’s getting better as he goes along. The more we run him, the better he’s getting.”

Brave Emperor will have a break now and return to action next year with some targets in the Middle East and Hong Kong to get him started before the domestic campaign.

Palin said: “He deserves a bit of a break now, then we’ll look at a Group Two out in Qatar and we’ll see if Hong Kong might like him, that’s an invite only so we’ll see if they’re interested in having him run over there.

“Maybe we could look at the Godolphin Dirt Mile, that’s on World Cup night, then maybe something like the Lockinge. He’s got Group Two penalties now, and Group Three penalties, so he is going to have to roll some big boy dice. He’s probably going to be (rated) 113 or 114 next Tuesday, so he deserves a crack at something like that.

“He just loves it, wherever he goes he takes it in his stride and runs his race. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe him to the owners!

“He is so much fun and such a cool horse to manage because we don’t have to. Archie picks the races, I tell the owners where they’re going, they travel out there, he travels on the box and then he just seems to win! He’s a manager’s dream and an owner’s dream.”