Young reinsman Brayden Green’s confidence of landing his first group winner was boosted significantly when outstanding four-year-old Major Reality drew the prized No. 1 barrier in the $50,000 Del Basso Smallgoods Empress Stakes at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
“I said before the draw that I wouldn’t swap my drive with any other runner in the race,” the 23-year-old Green said. “And now that Major Reality has drawn one I’m sure she will be mighty hard to run down.”
Major Reality has set the pace and won at each of her past five starts and Green intends to make full use of the New Zealand-bred mare’s excellent gate speed and her wonderful frontrunning ability. She has won at 12 of her 19 starts, with nine of those victories coming when she has set the pace.
Major Reality is one of three New Zealand-bred mares from the Boyanup stables of Justin Prentice, who is in New Zealand on a buying mission. His other runners are Quite A Delight and The Parade, with champion reinsman Chris Lewis opting to handle Quite A Delight in his bid to win the Empress Stakes for a ninth time.
Lewis has won the Empress Stakes with Candy Nacray (1988), Armbro Lucy (1992), Meggie Dear (2001), Classical Mover (2002), Shes Royalty (2007), Ima Spicey Lombo (2011) and Sensational Gabby (2014 and 2015).
Lewis opted to drive Quite A Delight after the four-year-old drew favourably at No. 3 on the front line. Five-year-old The Parade will start from the No. 6 barrier on the front line and Tom Buchanan is expected to be her driver.
Green said that little separated the three Prentice mares, but he was hopeful that Major Reality would lead and prove too good for the opposition in the group 2 feature event. The closest Green has come to winning a group event was when he drove Itz Darknstormy to a nose second to Major Catastrophe in the group 2 Champagne Classic in May 2011.
Major Reality, who won the WA Oaks by a nose from Quite A Delight last May, was driven for the first time by Green at her most recent appearance, when she led and sprinted over the final 400m in 26.9sec. to defeat The Real Nadal by two lengths over 2185m at Pinjarra on Monday of last week. She meets vastly stronger opposition in the Empress Stakes, but Green is confident she will handle the sharp rise in class.
“She’s got the speed to lead, so we’ll hang on to that,” he said. “She has gone really good since her latest run. Her work at home this (Tuesday) morning was as good as she has worked this preparation. She felt really sharp.
“Justin’s two others are working as good as her, but they just haven’t got the draws. Quite A Delight should get a nice run and Jungle Jewel should be on our back and she’s always dangerous with a soft trip. The Parade has been there and done that, whereas the other two girls are new on the block as this sort of grade.”
The Parade can never be underestimated. She has earned $259,249 from 17 wins and 14 placings from 43 starts and she warmed up for this week’s event in superb fashion at Gloucester Park last Friday week when she set the pace and dashed over the final quarters in 28.5sec. and 27.1sec. to win by just under seven lengths from Leda McNally.
The Chris King-trained Leda McNally (barrier four) and the brilliant Jesse Moore-trained Tricky Styx (barrier five) have excellent prospects. Leda McNally finished second in last Year’s Empress Stakes, just ahead of The Parade and her recent form is sound.
Four-year-old Tricky Styx, to be driven by Aiden de Campo, is in wonderful form and has won stylishly at each of her past three starts. She burst to an early lead and was not extended in winning easily from Millwood Faith over 2130m last Friday night. “I just let her run the final 400m and she had a fair bit left when we crossed the line, “ de Campo said. “She’s getting better every time she goes around.”
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