Boasting a profile not dissimilar to the one his sire Exceedance took into his three-year-old season, Brave One is being given an opportunity to lay an important spring marker in The Rosebud.
A strong winner of his only start as a late-season juvenile at Randwick in June, Brave One has been freshened for his step up to Listed grade in Saturday’s 1100m sprint at Rosehill.
Exceedance likewise made an impression with a stunning debut towards the end of his two-year-old year before he was given a short break, returning to take out the 2019 San Domenico Stakes (1100m).
Four starts later, he won the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) to secure his place at stud.
While Brave One has some way to go to reach those heights, Michael Hawkes can see parallels between the colt and his sire, who the team also trained.
“Exceedance went to Wyong and bloused them at his first start, this bloke, much the same but starting at Randwick,” Michael Hawkes said.
“He is a lot like his dad. All of the Exceedance’s, I can’t get enough of them.
“They’re showing they are quality and this bloke in particular. He has done everything right and he just keeps improving.”
The Hawkes training trio – father John and sons Michael and Wayne – are rarely without a good horse.
They have put their polish on the likes of star gallopers Chautauqua, All Too Hard, Ole Kirk, Brutal and Masked Crusader, while also winning a couple of Golden Slippers with Estjaab (2018 and Mossfun (2014).
While they didn’t have that elite performer last season, Michael Hawkes said they had worked hard to increase the quality of horse in their yard and the results were beginning to show.
Along with Brave One, they have promising young colt Swiftfalcon, a Rosehill winner in June, and Wednesday’s Randwick-Kensington victor Theblade, while filly Fly Fly showed her class during the autumn with seconds in the Sweet Embrace and Magic Night Stakes.
“We’ve had nice horses over the past couple of seasons but nothing to write home about,” Hawkes said.
“It’s like a typewriter, you keep pushing the buttons and slide it across. You’ve got to try to get rid of the bottom and get to the top again.
“That’s what we have done in the sense we’ve tried to go back to basics, go back to quality. A little bit less numbers and trying to get a Brave One, Theblade, those quality horses.
“They’re nice colts and we’ve got some cracking fillies at home as well so hopefully we’ve got a couple of nice seasons ahead.”
Brave One will meet a handy field of emerging three-year-olds on Saturday, including Godolphin’s Tarpaulin, Blue Diamond Preview winner High Octane and the promising Gatsby’s.
Despite the strength of the opposition, Hawkes expects Brave One to be hard to beat from barrier one.
“He has drawn well, small field and he’s a really nice, progressive colt. I can’t see any reason why he won’t do it again,” he said.
