Cover image courtesy of Trackside Photography
All eyes are on the G2 Queensland Guineas on May 2 for Chris and Corey Munce-trained Brave Monarch (Brave Smash {Jpn}) after his two-length demolition of the Listed Daybreak Lover Plate at Eagle Farm on Saturday. The $20,000 yearling took his earnings over $280,000 and he’s won four of his six starts.
“His first-up run had a lot of merit but his next run (Queensland Guineas) will be when it counts,” Corey Munce said post-race.
“I did have a slight worry when he was three-deep but he had cover and he just presented at the right time. He's such a cool little dude and he's pretty straightforward. He was getting a little warm as he pranced out onto the course proper but so were a lot of the other horses. I've got no doubt he's improved in the coat and we saw that today.”
Athletic type but unproven stallion
Hancox Bloodstock purchased Brave Monarch for $20,000 from Yulong’s 2024 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale draft. The price puts him well below the median for that sale, which hit $70,000 in 2024, with an average of $92,566.
“He was just a very athletic horse. Just a nicely balanced, athletic horse. Rod Peacock is my partner in this business and we both liked him,” said Shelley Hancox.
“He (Brave Monarch) was just a very athletic horse. Just a nicely balanced, athletic horse. Rod Peacock is my partner in this business and we both liked him.” - Shelley Hancox
“We don't spend a lot of money on horses, and he came in nicely for the budget we had.
“If they keep calling him little, he'll never get off to Hong Kong. He’s not actually little, he’s tall enough. He's just not very heavy. Instead of being a 500 kilo horse, his normal racing weight is about 460. He’s tall and narrow rather than short and dumpy.”
Brave Smash (Jpn) | Standing at Yarraman Park
At the time of Brave Monarch's purchase, Brave Smash (Jpn) had just the one stakes winner from his first crop of 3-year-olds being Brave Mead who had won the G3 Manfred Stakes. Kimochi showed promise as a 2-year-old winner who had placed in the G1 Flight Stakes and G1 1000 Guineas in the spring. She won her first stakes race, the G2 Light Fingers Stakes, one week after Brave Monarch walked through the ring at Inglis Classic. She went on to win the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes in November 2024.
“The pedigree certainly did look a lot weaker at the time. I think it had just been announced, or might have been announced shortly after, that Brave Smash was moving to Yarraman Park Stud.”
A family on the up as well
Brave Monarch’s dam, unraced mare Puppet Queen (USA) (Kingmambo {USA}) had produced six foals overseas for two winners at the time but had no runners locally. She has a chequered breeding and sales history, arriving in Australia in June 2018 as an empty mare. Sent to Invader twice, she foaled a colt in 2020, now named Invader Zim.
“And he's got an older half-brother called Invader Zim, who's with Chris Waller. But he had not won at the time we bought Brave Monarch.”
When Brave Monarch sold as a yearling in 2024, Invader Zim was an unplaced 3-year-old who’d had one start in the spring. He won at his third start at the end of February, two weeks after the Classic Sale of 2024, then added a second victory later that season.
Brave Monarch as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
Yulong sold Brave Monarch as a yearling, and Amy Feng had bought Puppet Queen for $17,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale while she was carrying him.
“Brave Monarch taking out the Listed Daybreak Lover is a proper result. A $20,000 horse, bought by Munce Racing, with Hancox Bloodstock who have a real knack of getting it right time and time again. They’ve done it with us before with Poster Girl and this is another one that’s heading the right way, it’s great to see,” said Yulong’s Harry King.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re $20,000 or $200,000 plus, seeing good trainers and good owners get a result like this off their own work gives you a real kick of enthusiasm.” - Harry King
“From vendor point of view, this is what it’s about. It doesn’t matter if they’re $20,000 or $200,000 plus, seeing good trainers and good owners get a result like this off their own work gives you a real kick of enthusiasm.
“Physically he was a nice moving horse with good substance to him. He’s always had the pedigree there, deep family through Group 1 winner Pinot, but credit to the ownership group for spotting him and getting him to this level.”
And it’s that depth of family that attracted Yulong to Puppet Queen, who foaled a colt by Diatonic (Jpn) this spring for them.
Puppet Queen | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
Puppet Queen is a daughter of G1 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Danelagh (Danehill {USA}), whose first two foals were triple Group 1 winner and Hong Kong Horse Of The Year Vengeance Of Rain (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and G1 Australian Oaks winner Dizelle (Zabeel {NZ}). She also foaled Listed winner Bernica (Elusive Quality {USA}) from her first four live foals.
After Danelagh had four foals in this part of the world, she was sent to America where her first foal up there was Puppet Queen, and she had a total of six live foals in America for three winners. Dizelle has produced G1 Victoria Oaks winner Pinot (Pierro) and Listed winner Dizlago (Encosta De Lago) while Bernica has produced G2 Tulloch Stakes winner Old North (Lonhro).
Hancox’s interesting business model
Brave Monarch debuted this spring with a fifth, before winning three in succession. This autumn, he ran fourth when fresh, before Saturday’s Listed Daybreak Lover Stakes win. He becomes the fifth stakes winner for his sire.
Brave Monarch winning the Listed Daybreak Lover Stakes | Image courtesy of Trackside Photography
“The initial aim is the Guineas in two weeks from last Saturday, and obviously, that’s stepping up to 1600, which is a bit of an unknown quantity. After that, we can work it out. Hopefully, we've got nice problem to work out,” said Hancox.
Most of the owners in Brave Monarch came into him after the horse they’d had previously with Hancox Bloodstock was slow.
“We have a free replacement on all our horses, and he was a free or almost free replacement share to quite a few people. So there’s quite a few happy people in him.
“When a horse gets sacked usually for lack of performance, we just offer (the owners) a share in another horse that we're syndicating at the time. They can take a share on another horse for nothing, or they can tip in a little bit if the horse was a reasonable price, or they can cash out.”
Shelley Hancox | Image courtesy of Hancox Bloodstock
It’s an interesting business model designed to help with client retention.
“We are registered syndicators, so it’s all outlined in a product disclosure statement with all the financials around it. From our point of view, if you are sacking a horse and you get to keep half those clients, it means less advertising for the next ones. And happy clients tend to stick around for a long time.
“We've bought a Brave Smash filly at the March Magic Millions, so hopefully there'll be some interest in her from both existing clients and outsiders. She’s going to the same trainers, and she’s QTIS qualified, and those QTIS fillies bonuses are brilliant.”
“We've bought a Brave Smash filly at the March Magic Millions, so hopefully there'll be some interest in her from both existing clients and outsiders.” - Shelley Hancox
Sold by Glenlogan Park as Lot 138, Hancox Bloodstock’s Brave Smash filly cost the same $20,000 as Brave Monarch. She is the fifth foal of six-time winning mare Dylan’s Deeva (Dylan Thomas {Ire}), whose first foal is a winner on the pedigree page. Since the catalogue went to print, Dylan’s Deeva’s 3-year-old gelding Man Of The Sea (North Pacific) won his maiden at his third start for Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr.
Could she be another one who looks like a bargain in two years?
