Widden Stud buys into Of The Brave

Hardly 24 hours ahead of the running of the A$1 million G1 Blue Diamond S., Widden Stud revealed they had bought a 10% interest into leading contender Of The Brave (Aus) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}). The A$170,000 Magic Millions yearling purchase–one of the highest-priced member of his sire’s small first crop–looks to maintain his perfect record going into Saturday’s race, having won the Listed Debutant S. over 1000 meters first time out and followed up with a wire-to-wire score in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude, going an extra 100 meters.

Anthony Thompson, owner of Widden Stud, commented on the acquisition, “We believe he is a very exciting young horse to be involved with going forward given his outstanding looks, strong pedigree and raw speed. His sire Starspangledbanner was an exceptional racehorse that had the rare constitution and natural ability to achieve Group 1 success in both hemispheres as a world champion sprinter, as was his sire Choisir. This could be an influential global sire line of the future and we hope Of The Brave could develop into an important stallion for Widden.” Should Of The Brave retire to the New South Wales nursery when his racing days are over, he would find himself in top company, with Golden Slipper heroes Sebring (Aus) and Stratum (Aus) among his barn mates.

Bought and trained by Mark Riley, Of The Brave was in the news earlier in the week as the banned conditioner fought to be allowed to saddle his charge in the Blue Diamond. A call for a Supreme Court injunction against the three-year ban–incurred for administering bicarbonate to one of his charges–was rejected, but a stay was ultimately ordered by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, allowing Riley to continue doing his job until Tuesday.