Solid debut for Home Of The Brave as winners continue to flow

The Australian debut of talented sprinter Home Of The Brave at Flemington on Saturday, 11 August has produced a satisfactory result and plenty of promise for the future.

On a day that included four winners in non-graded races, the former English galloper finished second in the G3 Aurie’s Star Handicap after showing abundant speed, only to be collared in the final 100m by the winner, Voodoo Lad.

Jockey Damian Lane returned to scale full of enthusiasm for a horse who was having his first start since November.

“There was plenty to like about the way he went today,” Lane said. “It was his first start in a long while and he might have been a bit keen. But he’s a horse with some class, that much was clear.

”He was beaten by one that is very fit and who had the drop on him, and he beat the others convincingly.”

Home Of The Brave won six races, five of which were at Stakes level, in England where he was trained by Hugo Palmer.

New trainer James Cummings now has a full program of sprints to select from in the coming spring, including several over the same 1,200m straight course as Saturday’s race.

The new season’s procession of winners races continued in non-graded races with two victories in Sydney, one in Melbourne and another at Newcastle.

At Rosehill in Sydney the progressive four-year-old Trekking won the Campbelltown Catholic Club Handicap and Flow took out the Spring Preview Hcp, both under Kerrin McEvoy.

At Flemington, the consistent Bandipur (Dwayne Dunn) collected the fifth win of his career while Cloak (Jeff Penza) broke through for a maiden win at Newcastle.

The four successes took the stable’s winning tally for the season to 11 in as many days, with nine of wins coming in Saturday, city-class races.