It was very much a case of picking up where they had left off for the progeny of Soldier Of Fortune as his Brave Fortune claimed the opening race of the 2023/24 campaign when Brave Fortune ran out an impressive winner of the Tattersalls NH four-year-old maiden.
Last season had seen the 2007 Irish Derby winner responsible for 22 winners in the point-to-point fields, notable for the fact that all bar three of them had come in maiden company, including five four-year-old maiden winners.
That quintet was made up of Hey Day Baby (Paurick O’Connor), De Tellers Fortune (Ellen Doyle), Oak Grove (Rob James), Fortunate Man (Mick Goff), and Chauffeur Driven (Harley Dunne).
Brave Fortune became an 18th four-year-old maiden winner for the progeny of Soldier Of Fortune since April 2021 with a 15-length success at the season-opening fixture in Castletown-Geoghegan last Sunday.
A €115,000 purchase at last year’s Goffs Land Rover sale, the bay had made his debut in the Goffs Defender bumper at last April’s Punchestown festival with a promising seventh to Predators Gold.
Returning from a six-month break, Pat Doyle’s charge proved to be in a league of his own on his first outing in the points sphere by routing his 11-strong opposition with a decisive move from the penultimate fence under Cheltenham festival winning rider Pa King.
“He’s a horse that I’ve always liked and he ran well in the Land Rover bumper,” the winning handler said.
“His dam is by Presenting and there’s lots of Presenting in him. Today was the plan and I was delighted when the rain came. We’ll have a think and see where we go from here.”
He is another promising horse to look forward to for his owners Linda Mulchay & Mary Wolridge, who enjoyed Grade 1 success as owners last season when their Flame Bearer, another point-to-point graduate of Doyles’ Suirview Stables, won the WillowWarm Gold Cup at Fairyhouse for Willie Mullins.
