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Fortune favours Bravery in Lincoln

Bravery winning at DundalkBravery winning at Dundalk
© Healy Racing Photos

Bravery made a fairytale start since joining North Yorkshire handler David O'Meara when denying Ryan Moore a four-timer on Oh This Is Us in the Betway Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster.

Danny Tudhope 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 2000 Guineas when trained by Aidan O'Brien.

It paid off as Bravery (20-1), bought for 44,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Autumn Sales, proved a shrewd purchase as the son of Galileo showed his class by denying Oh This Is Us by a neck to spoil a massive gamble on the 7-2 favourite.

Donncha was (7-1) was another neck away in third, with 2015 Lincoln winner Gabrial (16-1) just half a length away in fourth.

Tudhope said: "The key to this horse is just to get him to switch off as he can be a bit keen in his races."

O'Meara said: "He travelled well. He's run as far as a mile and a half in Ireland so it was a bit of a guessing game whether a mile would be too sharp for him.

"He ran well in a lot of good races in Ireland so this would be a drop in class for him.

"I'm really happy with him. It's great."

O'Meara continued: "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'd been working with Mondialiste and Custom Cut and when he (Custom Cut) ran well earlier I thought he'd run a big race.

"His owner isn't here so I'll have a chat with him before mentioning targets, hopefully we can go back up in class.

"At £44,000, he looks a good buy."

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 I'd 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."