Middleham Park land valuable 500k Group 2 in Doha

RSA member Middleham Park Racing continue to fly the flag at racing’s top levels as they celebrated win number 12 of 2024: BRAVE EMPEROR, trained by Archie Watson and ridden by Luke Morris won the 500,000 USD local Group 2 ‘Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup Invitational’ 1,600m/1m at Doha, Qatar. 

The Middleham Park team give us the lowdown:

“The HH the Amir Sword Festival is the most prestigious race meeting for Thouroughbreds and Arabians and is held annually at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC)’s Al Rayyan racecourse.

Fourteen of our owners travelled over to watch and were being very well looked after by the racecourse. They were joined by syndicate manager Tom, who was interviewed in the paddock pre race by presenter Tom Stanley. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day with some of the horses getting warm and a delay to the start after one broke out of the stalls meant many jockeys got off, including Luke. Brave Emperor was taking everything in his stride though.

As the race got underway, it was a pretty even break. Luke urged him along in the first furlong, to take a prominent position, tracking the leader. Coming to the home bend, Luke asked him to quicken and he soon took the lead with 300m to go. He kept on well inside the final furlong to repel the late surge from the Aidan O’Brien trained/Ryan Moore ridden, Cairo, winning by a neck. As they crossed the line, Mark Johnson, the commentator said “Brave Emperor holds on to take his international hat-trick!”

We’re absolutely thrilled for connections and we feel pretty sure this won’t be the first big winner for this syndicate powerhouse in 2024