Bravery starts Flat Season with narrow win in The Lincoln at Doncaster

Ridden by Daniel Tudhope, Bravery pipped race favourite Oh This Is Us to the feature race of the day, in doing so denying its jockey Ryan Moore a fourth win of the day.

Moore had earlier secured an impressive treble – on Ballet Concerto in the Spring Mile Handicap, Tupi in the Cammidge Trophy Stakes and Kool Kompany in the Doncaster Mile Stakes, and was understandably many people’s favourite to also take out the traditional start to the Flat campaign.

Tudhope however had other ideas and made the bold move of switching from his high draw of 20 to go right across to the favoured far side aboard the four-year-old colt, who was fourth in last season’ s Irish 2,000 Guineas when trained by Aidan O’Brien.

It was a move which paid off handsomely as Bravery denied Moore and Oh This Is Us by a neck.

To emphasise how close the contest was, Donncha, ridden by Jamie Sepncer, was another neck’s distance away in third, with 2015 Lincoln winner Gabrial just half a length away in fourth

Speaking afterwards, O’Meara said, “I thought it was a fantastic ride.

“After the Spring Mile, Danny said he was going to bite the bullet and take him over to the far side. He purposefully missed the break, which helped get him settled, and he made a beeline to get over there.

“It was a very confident ride, because he hadn’t ridden much in the winter but he’s obviously not rusty. He was held up slightly on the far side of the field, so to get that win was a real result”.

“It means an awful lot. You like to hit the ground running – sometimes you come here and loads of bubbles are burst, but it’s nice to win. It tells you you’ve probably done the right thing”.

Tudhope added: “It was impossible to know what sort of a race he’d run, to be honest, as we didn’t know much about him.

“After the Spring Mile I’d said to David and take him over there, just to get him settled more than anything, and I managed to get him switched off.
“He looks an exciting horse, hopefully we can go back up in class”.

The Lincoln Handicap – or The Lincoln as it is more commonly known in racing circles, can trace its roots back to 1849. Run over a distance of a mile, the race is open to horses aged four years or older and is traditionally the feature event on the first Saturday of Britain’s turf flat racing season at Doncaster in late March or early April.