Brown Banking On Menari To Upstage Fillies

Corey Brown rides Menari in The Inglis Sires. Photo courtesy Geo Hillis Photography.
Corey Brown rides Menari in The Inglis Sires. Photo courtesy Geo Hillis Photography.

 Fillies have dominated the major two-year-old races this season but Corey Brown reckons Menari is poised to put the males on the Group One scoreboard in the Sires’ Produce Stakes.

“I wouldn’t choose another one over him,” Brown said.

The Gerald Ryan-trained youngster was the first of the colts and geldings home in the Golden Slipper.

He was third across the line but relegated to fourth behind a trifecta of fillies – She Will Reign, Frolic and Tulip.

Brown said Menari wasn’t overly comfortable on the heavy ground, adding merit to his performance, and he had been buoyed by reports from the stable that Menari had thrived since the Slipper run.

“It was the first time I’d been on him so I was really, really impressed with him,” Brown said.

“He’s a horse that’s definitely going to go places. He’s got a great attitude, he’s very mature and Gerald said he pulled up 110 per cent after his run in the Slipper.”

Saturday’s Sires’ Produce Stakes will be Menari’s first test at 1400m and Brown doesn’t see the distance as an issue.

He is more concerned about giving the colt a trouble-fee run.

“His first run when he won was the only time he had everything go his way,” Brown said.

“Every other time he’s had a race start he’s had thing go wrong and he’s still had the audacity to overcome those little things and still run well in the Slipper.”

Brown will be chasing his first Group One win in Sydney since George Ryder Stakes day in 2011 when he notched a double aboard Rangirangdoo in the main race and Mirjulisa Lass in the Vinery Stud Stakes.

The jockey, who returned from 3-1/2 years in Singapore in January, has had more recent success in Melbourne where he won the Group One Lightning Stakes on Terravista last month.

Brown will reunite with Terravista in Saturday’s TJ Smith Stakes with Sense Of Occasion rounding out his Group One book in the Doncaster Mile.

By Mandy Cottell

SYDNEY, March 30 AAP

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