Champagne and risotto all round as Middleham Park make it 100 wins for 2023 at San Siro

Brave Emperor brought up a century for Middleham Park Racing with a decisive success in the Premio Vittorio Di Capua at San Siro in Italy on Sunday.

The three-year-old's four-length Group 2 victory under Luke Morris, from the Simon and Ed Crisford-trained Poker Face, was his owners' 100th of the year worldwide and the £99,000 first prize took Brave Emperor's earnings to more than £321,000.

"We've had seven or eight seconds since we reached 99 and we'd been wondering whether the 100th would ever come, but what a way to bring it up, in a Group 2," said Middleham Park racing manager Tim Palin.

The Archie Watson-trained Brave Emperor has won six races in four different countries during a season which he began by losing a race in the stewards' room after passing the post first at Southwell in January.

"He's an absolute superstar and it's fantastic prize-money," Palin said. "Archie has masterminded his campaign brilliantly and we really appreciate Luke going all around Europe to land various spoils on him.

Tim Palin: "He's an absolute superstar and it's fantastic prize-money"

"There's nothing wrong with having a winner on your local track, but when you jump on a plane and go and win a big race in a foreign clime, it adds extra spice.

"We've done it a fair bit in our time. There were ten members out there today and they'll have had a great time because what they usually do at San Siro is take you round the course on a horse and carriage to celebrate, they play the national anthem, make a lovely risotto and ply you with champagne."

Reflecting on reaching three figures, Palin said: "Last year was a record with 125 winners and we may not quite match that but we started on New Year's Day with Marie's Rock winning the Relkeel Hurdle and there have been plenty of good days since, including The Gatekeeper landing the Balmoral at Ascot and Shouldvebeenaring finishing second in the Sprint Cup at Haydock. 

"We've got more owners than ever and more horses than ever, and we still have hopes of landing a Grade 1 with Marie's Rock in the Long Walk Hurdle."

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