The Joey Ramsden-trained Western Winter colt Brutal Force is officially the most expensive horse ever bought at public auction in South Africa and after putting up a tremendous gallop at Kenilworth on Saturday in preparation for this weekend’s Gr1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas he is shaping up to be worth his price tag.

Brutal Force was bred by Lammerskraal’s long standing stud manager Sally Jourdan and it will be particularly special if he can win Saturday’s big race as she is tying the knot on the same day with her fiancé, the well known trainer Neil Bruss.

Markus and Ingrid Jooste own Brutal Force and their racing manager Derek Brugman watched the big horse’s gallop on Saturday, in which he and his more fancied Guineas stablemates Act Of War and Kingvoldt were led by a strong pacemaker.

The Joostes also own Act Of War, who is the hot favourite for Saturday’s big race and does not need to prove a lot as his dominant record on the racecourse speaks for itself.

Consequently, it was Brutal Force’s gallop that was the most eyecatching in Brugman’s opinion.

He said that it appeared that the big chestnut had improved significantly from his last run, in which he finished a commendable 0,75 length second to the unbeaten Zambezi River in the R2 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes over 1400m on the Kenilworth Old Course.

Brugman added that it was always difficult to tell how meritorious a gallop had been, because it would not be exactly clear how much weight each horse was carrying. However, in this case Brutal Force had Andrew Fortune aboard, so it could be assumed that he was carrying more weight than the other pair, who were ridden by Bernard Fayd’Herbe and Anthony Andrews respectively.

Jourdan said Brutal Force had always had a special aura about him.

She said, “He was a beautiful foal with the most incredible temperament as he was never a naughty foal who rushed around, but instead was like a serious old man. He was big and hairy and very muscled and visitors to the farm were always in awe of him.”

Jourdan had felt before sending him to the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1 of 2013, where he was the first horse to go through the ring, that he would be a R3 million colt, so was a touch disappointed with the R1,5 million that he fetched.

She said, “When I asked certain buyers why they had not bid for him, they replied that in the opinion of the sales experts he was too big and heavy and would never make a racehorse.”

The Joostes then entered Brutal Force in the 2013 Ready To Run Sale at Durbanville with the obvious aim of qualifying him for the R2 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes of 2014.

Jourdan recalled, “By that stage he was looking more like a racehorse.”

Furthermore his full-brother, Red Ray, had become a sensation on the race track, having won four out of his five starts, including an impressive 2,5 length thrashing of none other than the subsequent Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate in the Gr 3 cape Classic over 1400m.

Red Ray was also the hot-pot favourite for the following day’s Ready To Run Stakes.

It was expected that Jooste would have to bid high to keep Brutal Force, but nobody had envisaged that he would need to go to R4,5 million. One of the country’s biggest buyers, Adriaan van Vuuren, had taken a shine to the horse and the bidding war that ensued was accompanied by a murmuring from fascinated onlookers that kept on increasing in volume.

Brutal Force is the latest racing progeny of the amazing mare Nacarat, who was by the brilliant J&B Met winner Pas De Quoi.

He has turned out to be a completely different sort to Red Ray, who is bay in colour and full of speed.

His full sister Nania was similar in distance range to Red Ray in that she won a Gr 1 as two-year-old over 1600m, but was also very effective over 1400m.

Another full-brother, Target Acquired, was also packed with speed and four of his five victories were over 1200m.

Despite all this speed in the family, Nacarat has also produced the useful middle distance to staying type Adobe Pink (Go Deputy), who won a Listed race over 2400m.

Brutal Force himself looks likely to relish the step up to 1600m on Saturday and should also appreciate the longer straight. He has quite a difficult draw of eleven, but his jockey Sean Cormack has become renowned for his ability to place horses well in the running and is full of confidence at present having ridden a feature race double last weekend. It would be no surprise to see Brutal Force running on strongly all the way to the line.

Meanwhile, Nacarat’s influence looks set to continue for some time.

She and her daughter Adobe Pink are both in foal to Western Winter’s probable most exciting son at stud, the brilliant sprinter What A Winter.

Furthermore, a full-brother to Brutal Force will be on next year’s Bloodstock South Africa National yearling Sale.

Another chapter in the career of the remarkable mare Nacarat could be written on Saturday afternoon at Kenilworth, although Brutal Force is really up against it as he lines up against an exceptionally talented field.