Brambles Leads Dream WS Derby result

In a superb ‘catch me if you can’ performance, Savabeel gelding Brambles defied all from pillar-to-post in the Gr.1 Queensland Derby (2400m) on Saturday.

In what was an outstanding result for WS, the home-bred downed Quintessential who had given her sire Fast ‘N’ Famous his first top level success the previous week in the Queensland Oaks.

Just as he did in the Gr 3 Grand Prix Stakes a fortnight back, Brad Rawiller surged Brambles to the lead shortly after the start. The son of Savabeel kept up a relentless gallop to turn back the challenge of Quintessential by one and a quarter lengths.

“We were able to get across pretty good without being really pestered but he didn’t really switch off as good as what he did at Doomben,” Rawiller told Sky Racing World. “I gave him a little bit of a breather from the back but from the 600 or 700, he started to click into gear and you can’t hold him up, you have got to go with him. I was worried at the 300. I thought ‘now we need to see your guts buddy’ and he just kept giving. He is a tough horse.”

Peter Moody praised Rawiller’s initiative on the promising stayer. “It was a good tough effort, a terrific judged ride from Brad and a good tough effort from the horse,” he said. “I was confident, they were under pressure on the turn chasing him and it was very well judged by Brad. He has climbed the mountain each time this horse. He had done a tremendous job to improve as the prep has gone on.”

A $100,000 purchase by Moody from the WS consignment at the 2010 Premier Yearling sale at Karaka, Brambles is the second foal of the Gr 2 placed Pins mare Prickle, whose dam Snobbish is a sister to six-time Gr 1 winner Slight Chance.

Prickle has a two-year-old filly by Savabeel and a yearling colt by WS’s Cox Plate winning son of Zabeel. The daughter of Pins has a weanling filly by Quintessential’s sire Fast ‘N’ Famous and was bred back to Savabeel last year.

Brambles becomes the third Gr 1 winner for Savabeel, who also sired this season’s Victorian Derby hero Sangster.