Unbeaten Juvenile Brave Halo Pointed to Blue Diamond

Connections of Western Australia's best 2-year-old, the unbeaten Brave Smash colt Brave Halo, is back in training and being prepared for a tilt at the Blue Diamond Stakes (G1) in Victoria.

The Sean and Jake Casey-trained Brave Halo, who has won his first three starts by a combined eight and a half lengths, was given a short break after bringing up the hat-trick when scoring by five and a quarter lengths at Ascot Nov. 5, prompting owner Wally Daly and the stable to consider a Melbourne campaign with the exciting juvenile.

"He is only 15.1hh, but he has a very solid shoulder, flank, and backend on him. He is built like a real powerball. He is a natural 2-year-old, but the thing that's got us excited is his acceleration," Sean Casey told ANZ Bloodstock News Dec 18.

"He doesn't use his speed to fall over the line, he uses his speed to then speed up. His last 100 meters (in his races), he's been spacing them, and the horse who won our 2-year-old race here Dec. 17 by almost four lengths (Shell Bell), he beat her by nine lengths Oct. 8." 

The Caseys have been liaising with Melbourne Racing Club official Josh Rodder, a former Perth Racing administrator, about how best to plan Brave Halo's assault on the $2 million Blue Diamond, to be run Feb. 25 at Sandown.

The trainers are likely to test the Victorian waters with Brave Halo either in the Blue Diamond Preview (C&G) on Australia Day or the Blue Diamond Prelude (C&G) (G3) Feb. 11, both of which are also being run at Sandown in 2023 while Caulfield is under redevelopment.

"Because he is a colt, we thought it would be more beneficial to him (to race in Melbourne). He has to have the x-factor and if he hasn't got that, obviously it will all be put behind him, but because he hasn't got WA (Westspeed) bonuses—he was born and bought over east—he's not eligible for the normal bonus scheme," Casey Sr. said. 

"There's a lot more money over there in just normal races, even if he wasn't going to be right for the Blue Diamond, obviously there's other races that he could go in and earn more than he could here without the bonuses.

"It's a pipedream, but if he happens to have the x-factor and wins a group 1, he's obviously got some residual value."

He added: "I wouldn't be barking so much if he wasn't just beating horses because of his intelligence, but all his times have been really good. Although it doesn't look like he's beaten much, the few horses behind him are starting to frank themselves as being strong."

Purchased as a weanling by Hancock Quality Bloodstock's Adrian Hancock for AU$135,000 (US $104,958) at the 2021 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale on behalf of Perth owner Daly, the Aquis Farm-bred and Willow Park-sold Brave Halo was almost gelded prior to starting his racing career Oct. 8 at Ascot. 

"We had a few horses in work for the early races and they went shin sore, started growing and doing all those things, and it's different in a race, but in trackwork he wasn't our best trackworker leading into the early 2-year-old trials," the trainer revealed.

"We did think he was going to be on the list for giving him a couple of trials and then gelding him, but he ran a super trial while they (testicles) were still in, so we decided that he could have another trial, and not geld him now, and then he went really well again before going onto the races.

"He's been lucky to hold onto them, but it was never that he was unmanageable or anything, it was just going to be one of the boys."

Brave Halo's owner Daly and his late brother George, himself a long-time Perth trainer, raced dual group 1-winning sprinter Vega Magic, runner-up in the inaugural The Everest, who started his career in the care of the father-and-son Casey team before joining the Lindsay Park stable for his eastern states career.

Talented middle-distance horse Dom To Shoot, who ran fourth in the Ted Van Heemst Stakes (G2) behind Marocchino, Steinem, and Ironclad, could join Brave Halo on the plane to Melbourne for a late summer, early autumn preparation. 

Lightly raced 4-year-old Mosquito, who is also owned by Daly, as is Dom To Shoot, could also be on the plane to Victoria.

The Casey-trained trio is likely to be stabled at either Flemington or Pakenham for their Victorian campaigns.