Brave Emperor has more international travel on his agenda as San Siro in Italy looks to be the next port of call after his Dusseldorf triumph.
The Archie Watson-trained gelding is remarkably well travelled and this year alone has plied his trade in England, France, Germany and Sweden.
His forays abroad are often successful as he won the Listed Prix de la Californie at Cagnes-Sur-Mer, the Dr Busch-Memorial at Krefeld and the Prix Daphnis at Deauville as well as coming second in the Oettingen Rennen at Baden-Baden and third in the Stockholms Stora Pris at Bro Park.
His latest trip was to Germany for the Group Three Grosser Preis der Landeshauptstadt Dusseldorf, a race he won by three-quarters of a length under Luke Morris having been sent off as the favourite.
Italy now beckons for the gelding, who could contest either the Group Three Premio del Piazzale or the Group Two Premio Vittorio di Capua.
Tim Palin of Middleham Park Racing, who own the bay, said: “Brave Emperor is a legend of a horse, he’s a Middleham Park stalwart. He’s won three Group Threes, he’s been all over the world globetrotting, whether it’s Royal Ascot to winning in France and Germany and Sweden.
“He really wears his heart on his sleeve and seems to get on so well with Luke, it’s great placing by Archie to send him to all these places.
“He runs right through the line for you and we’ve worked out what he wants; a mile or thereabouts, a little bit of juice in the ground and probably avoiding the top-notchers.
“He was in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein but he’s just below Group One and Group Two company, but if we had a few more like him we’d have lot of smiles on faces and happy owners around Europe.
“He is a couple of races in Italy, a Group Two and a Group Three, and that’s probably where we’ll go next.
“He’s not ground dependent but I think you can get two kinds of Milan at that time of year, pretty quick and pretty soft and we’d prefer it with a bit of juice in the ground.
“He’s quite versatile but he’s a heavy horse with a bit of knee action and he’d prefer a bit of give.”
