BROWNIE'S BLOG: BUFFERING, ALWAYS GAME ... AND HAS CHRIS MUNCE UNVEILED A VERY SMART HORSE

By Damian Browne | Monday, October 3, 2016

Damian Browne partnered Buffering the in Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley last Friday and then was back at Doomben winning a two-year-old race on Ours To Keep on Saturday. In this edition of Brownie's Blog, which is exclusive to HRO, Damian talks HRO readers through those two important runs

Buffering turned in his usual game effort in his unsuccessful quest for a fourth Moir Stakes title at Moonee Valley on Friday night. As always, Buff did his best and that is all you can ask of any runner.

Buffering began really well. Ball of Muscle is a pretty quick horse and he was able to get up inside me and get along at a fairly good tempo. I wasn’t able to roll and cross him ... but I still ended up in a favourable enough position.

Buffering travelled well enough but when they sprinted, probably at the 600m, it took him a little bit of time to wind up.

I do think he is a better horse when he can get his own way and can dictate the speed.

Normally, when he is able to get to the front, the speed he goes at is quite a high, free rolling one so he gets left alone when he is there. He is at his best when he is able to do that because he just breaks horse’s hearts.

Having said that, Buffering has won races before when not leading, so it certainly is not the end of the world if he doesn’t but, as I say, I think when he can dictate is when he is at his most dangerous.

Either way, you can never question his heart. Even on Friday night, as soon as the two that were around him got away from him and gave him clear running, Buffering still showed plenty of fight.

Isolating Buffering’s performance is one thing, but you have got to place it in the context of a crack hot race in which the winner, Extreme Choice, is probably a star of the future.

If you take the first three out of it Chautauqua has only beaten us by about a head or something. If you look at it that way it was not a bad effort.

I was a bit confused with Buffering on the way to the start on Friday. I normally get a pretty good idea about how he going to run from the feel he gives me pre-race.

He went out to parade. He took his time, which he can do, and normally when we turn to come back down he chomps the bit and tries to get on with it.

On Friday though he was having a little bit of a loaf and having a look at everything and taking it all in again.
That was understandable in its own way, because he hadn’t been there for ten months, but it did leave me a little bit confused as to just where we stood when we got to the start ... but that concern evaporated two strides into the race. His legs, his action all felt fine.

When he jumped and just pinned the lids I thought we were here to rock but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

The main thing is that Buffering has pulled up well.

Things will just play out over the next couple of weeks and we’ll see what he tells us!

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Back at Doomben on Saturday and I was lucky enough to get on what looks to be a good one, the Chris Munce trained Ours To Keep.

Chris has had a bit of time for this horse and he said it had really come on in the last couple of weeks ... and I think that certainly showed on Saturday.

He is a really nice, progressive type and probably a horse that could go on towards the Magic Millions.

I didn’t necessarily have to lead but with two-year-olds, especially on their first day, you want to come out a bit positive on them just to get them to learn about racing.

Also, as was the case on Saturday with so many first starters in the race, if you are able to be in the first two or three it can take away some of the bad luck out of the equation or limit the risk of getting knocked over by a wayward one.

So we did want to be in the first couple and thankfully Ours To Keep was able to do that.

Chris has done a great job educating the horse so it was just sort of an armchair ride for me.

Chris so enjoys what he is doing although he does say he gets really nervous before the start of a race with butterflies in the tummy and all that.

He says he never used to get that when he was riding ... and, well, the excitement he shows after saddling a winner speaks for itself.

Chris is obviously in the process of building a very nice team of horses and it is good for me to be given the option to ride for him on occasions.

I have always respected Chris as a horseman and to see that he has been able to turn his trade to training and do such a great job ... I really take my hat off to him.

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