The remarkable Brave Move can make it six in a row in the Final Fling Stakes at Kenilworth tomorrow.
The four-year-old’s winning run has been one of the stories of the season – albeit one of the least highlighted – yet she has climbed in the ratings from 74 to 105, each time scoring with something in hand.
“She showed us a lot of ability from very early on and she has got just got better and better, mentally as well as physically,” Adam Marcus recalls. “Having won so many times, she goes into her races with so much confidence and she came through her win in the Ladies Mile very well. She had her head in the manger the next morning and since then she has freshened up nicely.”
But this is her toughest task yet. She has to give Fresnaye a kilo and a half and yet the Joey Ramsden charge – good enough to take third in the Fillies Guineas and the Paddock Stakes – is rated a kilo better than her. Can she do it?
“I think she can,” says Marcus. “Fresnaye is obviously an exceptionally talented filly and the weights are not in our favour but Brave Move has matured quite a lot and she is doing exceptionally well.”
Brave Move is still favourite at 11-10 with World Sports Betting and Fresnaye is second in the market at 22-10 with the statistics more in her favour – there has only been one winning favourite in the last five years.
Ramsden, curiously, has not won this race in any of the last 17 runnings but he also fields a formidable second string in 5-1 shot Dynasty’s Blossom who ran Fresnaye to a neck in the Winter Oaks over 400m further 13 days ago. She is a kilo worse here.
Justin Snaith has won three of the last five Final Flings but it is hard to enthuse about either Konkola or Red Ginger. Both are in double figures.
Lady Of The House looks a much more potent threat even though she is as big as 10-1 and has to give away lumps of weight all round.
The Woolavington winner was due to come under the hammer at Durbanville yesterday but there was a lot to like about the way she returned from a seven-month absence to run on into third in the Ladies Mile. It maybe her second run after a rest but she is a class act.
Call To Account, beaten only by Brave Move in the Ladies Mile, has smart form over 1 200m and stands out in the Champagne Stakes.
By Michael Clower


