The Emma-Lee and David Brown stable landed their biggest win when Mcgaw won The Showdown at Caulfield and are looking to repeat the effort again 12 months on.
McGaw took out the $1 million last year and to that stage the victory was the Browne’s biggest on Australian soil until the three-year-old took out the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1100m) at Flemington last spring.
Lomu will represent the Browne’s in Saturday’s edition of The Showdown (1200m) and unlike McGaw will be making his first racetrack appearance.
McGaw had won a Pakenham maiden on debut prior to his Caulfield success, and it was only after a gallop at Caulfield on Tuesday that the Browne’s bit the bullet and made the decision to run Lomu on Saturday.
“It’s a little bit of a throw at it but he’s trialled up good,” Emma-Lee Browne said.
“At this time of year in two-year-old racing you come up against a horse or horses that have won, so we thought if he came through his gallop all good, it’s an idea.
“A lot of the people that were in McGaw are in this horse as well, so it would be very nice to be there again and go and give it a bit of a nudge as well.”
Like McGaw, Lomu is a son of I Am Immortal, and like McGaw, Lomu was a cheap purchase, costing just $10,000.
“The same reason I loved McGaw, I love this horse,” Browne said.
“He was big, he was scopey, he had big ears. He wandered around having a look at things and seemed pretty happy.
“Hopefully he can run similar.”
Browne has a lot of time for the progeny of I Am Immortal, although they have become a bit more expensive at the recent yearling sales, courtesy of McGaw’s win in the Danehill.
“Luckily our first two have been pretty good buys and I really rated the stallion, I think he’s very, very good,” Browne said.
“A lot of the horses by I Am Immortal can really gallop and have shown something.”
Success in last year’s edition of The Showdown brought some new owners to the stable and Browne said success in another edition would be welcomed again.
“We’ve been able to increase our numbers by a fair few,” Browne said.
“We’ve got a few more yearlings this year, so it’s an exciting time of the year to have the young ones around.”
The Browne’s will also kick-off the autumn campaign of Basilinna in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m) after the mare ticked her final box in a jump-out at Pakenham on Tuesday.
