Progressive Brillantezza dominates Mahogany Final

Emerging staying three-year-old Brillantezza (NZ) (Castelvecchio) ran out an impressive winner of the Mahogany Challenge Final (2500m) at Flemington on Saturday for in-form trainer Patrick Payne.

The daughter of Castelvecchio was ridden by Dean Yendall and showed a ready turn of foot to score impressively despite laying in over the concluding stages.

“It’s a great thrill for everyone,” stable representative Neil Greaves said.

“David Brooks, who's one of the main owners, he's over from Adelaide with a couple of his mates, so they'll be very excited about this.

“What a brilliant ride by Dean Yendall. I was watching the horse pretty closely and he rode it absolutely perfectly.

“He’s had a great first prep. He won a maiden impressively at Wangaratta. I don't think Patrick was exactly sure at the time what he had, but gee whiz, she’s been terrific since.

“She went fantastic at Bendigo, coming from last and just rounded them up. And then today, this would have been a target race for her, obviously and Patrick’s pretty good at that.”

Brillantezza has now won three of her five starts and looks a stayer of the future despite a few wayward tendencies.

“She just never really travelled underneath me, so I was always just trying to keep myself balanced up on top of her,” Yendall said.

“If you ride, you know what I mean. They actually pull you up in and out of the saddle, where as she just slops around beautifully and doesn't touch the bridle, but when you ask her to just go through her gears and quicken, she does.

“I needed luck there from the 600 onwards, I was just bottled up with nowhere to go.

“Horses were coming around, I dropped half of my steering wheel up the straight, got that back within three strides, nearly ran up the thing’s backside in front of me, got her to the outside and she went to lay in a bit.

“She's very green and still raw. I think she's got a lot of upside to her. She's got plenty of stamina, a great stride on her and I can't see why she can't get further.

“Hopefully there are bigger and better things come spring time.”

Bred by South Australia’s Cornerstone Stud Farm Pty Ltd and J F Rural Trust, Brillantezza is out of the winning Tavistock mare Kristalove and stems from the Eight Carat family, with multiple Group One winner Tristalove the fourth dam of Brillantezza.