Brave Smash to join Vinnie and Hellbent at Yarraman Park

Written by Jessica Owers

Cover image courtesy of Yarraman Park

Japanese import Brave Smash (Jpn), a resident on the Aquis stallion roster for the last four breeding seasons, will relocate to Yarraman Park for 2023. The Mitchell family has secured a majority ownership in the horse and he will join I Am Invincible and Hellbent at a fee to be announced.

Brave Smash is among Australia’s emerging freshman sires. He is currently fourth on the first-season sire table by earnings, with only Justify (USA), Harry Angel (Ire) and Trapeze Artist ahead of him.

The horse has to date produced such good winners as the Western Australian star Brave Halo, who was fourth in the G1 Blue Diamond S. this year, along with the Listed-winning Brave Mead, the latter campaigned by Australian Bloodstock and a last-start competitor in the G1 Inglis Sires’.

Brave Smash was retired to stud in the spring of 2019. Initially, he stood at Aquis’ Murrurundi operation in New South Wales but subsequently followed the Aquis banner to its Canungra farm.

His debut fee was $22,000 (inc GST) and, after briefly dropping in the two intervening seasons, he was back up to that number last spring when he covered 89 mares. He will depart Queensland at a point yet to be decided but, according to Yarraman’s General Manager Matt Scown, it will be sooner rather than later.

“We only closed the deal last night (Wednesday), so when everything is finalised we’ll bring him down asap,” Scown said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “We want to get him to Yarraman as soon as we can, more than anything so we can showcase him. We’re very proud to get him and we’d love everyone in the Hunter, and anyone coming up from Sydney, to come out and inspect him. It will be an open house.”

Scown is no stranger to handling Brave Smash. For a time, the horse was trained by Darren Weir before heading to Kris Lees, and it was during the Weir tenure that Scown, who worked for Weir, got to know the imported sprinter.

“This horse has got a very, very good temperament,” Scown said. “I remember him as a racehorse as I used to work with him at Darren Weir’s, and he never stepped a foot out of line. He was a really well-mannered horse and that obviously hasn’t changed since he’s been at stud.”

Brave Smash commenced his racing career in Japan where he was a stakes-winning and Group 3-placed colt. He was imported by Australian Bloodstock in May 2017, after which he won the G1 Futurity S. and G1 Manikato S.

He was twice-placed in the G1 Newmarket H. and second in the G1 Moir S., and the list of horses that he continuously ran into included Sunlight (Zoustar), Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Redzel (Snitzel) and Trapeze Artist. It was a speedster’s generation.

Two become three at Yarraman

For Yarraman Park, securing a third stallion had been on the radar for some time, and the speed-orientated Brave Smash is a significant scoop.

“We’ve been watching him since day dot,” Scown said. “He was an elite-level Group 1 winner and he ran third in the inaugural The Everest, going very well behind two good horses. The word went around early that he had very good foals, and so from that point on, we were watching him really closely.”

Brave Smash’s first foal-count was 75. From those, 14 have made it to the track so far for five winners, which is equal first on the first-season sire table with Trapeze Artist this season for winners.

“When it came to his yearlings, a lot of the bloodstock agents were complimenting his stock, and he’s started to do it on the racetrack too,” Scown said. “As a stallion he’s absolutely flying and we’re really, really pleased to be able to secure him because, as everyone knows, Yarraman Park doesn’t stand a lot of stallions.

“Harry and Arthur want to ensure that when they do stand one, it’s the right one. We all agreed that Brave Smash was definitely the right one so we pursued him.”

To date, Brave Smash has had two yearling crops through the sale rings. A total of 50 were offered last year, and this year that figure is sitting at 18.

His first-crop average was just under $75,000, which was over triple his debut service fee. So far this year, with just 18 through the ring, his average is just shy of $50,000, which is a healthy return on his second-season fee of just $19,250 (inc GST).

A complete outcross

Critical to Brave Smash’s acquisition was the speed element of his performances. He fits the Australian sprinting profile, which is where Yarraman hangs its hat.

However, he’s also ideal on pedigree being a complete outcross by Tosen Phantom (Jpn) from the Tokai Teio (Jpn) mare Tosen Smash (Jpn).

“We can mate him to our Fastnet Rock mares and our Hinchinbrook mares, of which we have many, and even our I Am Invincible mares will go to him,” Scown said. “He’s a very easy horse to mate to and he’s a very good-looking animal. Most importantly, though, he’s got the speed factor.”

Scown said Aquis had done a good job in the last four seasons setting up Brave Smash for a stud career.

“They supported him with a lot of mares,” he said. “All of his runners to the track so far have performed and hit the line well, so for him to start his career with Aquis and start it so well, we’re effectively taking on a horse that’s already proved himself to a point.

“We’d like to continue upgrading him with some of our better mares. We’re going to really get behind this horse to give him a good crack. So we’ve had it in the pipeline for a while and it finally came to fruition last night. We’re over the moon.”

While Yarraman Park is the new majority shareholder in Brave Smash, Aquis has remained invested, along with a number of other shareholders. A fee is yet to be decided in the wake of Thursday’s announcement.

“We haven’t discussed his fee yet,” Scown said. “The main thing was to secure the horse, and now that we’ve got him we’ll discuss it next week. We’ll obviously be discussing all three stallions in that respect, and we’ll look to release the service fees at the end of April.”