EXPLOSIONS were expected in the St Cecelia Cup on Saturday, especially from the camp of trainer Gary Subratie after his talented three-year-old filly, Nuclear Affair, produced a dominant performance on August 20 when capturing the six-and-a-half-furlong (1,300 metres) Seek Exercise Book Trophy in a time of 1:18.1 minutes.

Apart from Nuclear Affair in the St Cecelia, the cast included the likes of the hard-knocking Campesino; last year’s Invitational Mile winner Phineas; the ever persistent and improving Dreamcometrue, and the durable but sometimes unpredictable Brawn.

Well, there were no explosions, as Nuclear Affair failed to fire. Instead we got pure Brawn, also from the barn of Subratie.

Brawn produced a scintillating run in deep stretch to win the St Cecelia, thereby registering his fourth win for the season from 16 overall starts.

It was Brawn’s second win at the Open Allowance level. Brawn did well when finishing third by five lengths behind Long Running Train and Bigdaddykool on his last outing over 1,820 metres, which ended in a fast 1:52.1 minutes.

Brawn was clocked at 1:53.1 minutes. Prior to that run, Brawn was a disappointing seventh over the previous Saturday’s distance behind Nuclear Affair, Force De Jour and Campesino, but turned up a completely different animal on Saturday, powering past rivals against the inside rails for a rather easy victory over Dreamcometrue (Jemar Jackson), Phineas (Wesley Henry), and Campesino (Linton Steadman).

The final time of 1:17.1 minutes was a reflection of the progress made by the four-yearold, although it must be noted that the racetrack has been on the fast side over the last three weeks or so.

Brawn, a dark bay American-bred colt, created a mild upset, but trainer Gary Subratie thought otherwise, saying he was confident that his charge would have finished in the top two.

“The performance by Brawn was just excellent. I knew he could have done better the last time going over 1,300 metres in the Seek Exercise Book Trophy.

“I believe then that the jockey was a bit laid back on him that day, but today (Saturday) he warmed him up very well before the race and got him a little bit closer to early pace. “He got a little stop leaving the halfmile but recovered well to win going away.

“I think he ran very well, and to be very honest, I expected him to run either first or second. The plan going into the race was to get a good break, keep close to the pace and finish strong,” Subratie told the Complete Racing Guide.

Jockey Aaron Chatrie was also pleased with the victory. “He (Brawn) ran very well to win. He is a very nice horse who is just improving each time. “When I asked him to go leaving the half-mile, he just answered and blew past the field,” Chatrie said.

Nuclear Affair was never a factor throughout the race. She was up with the pace for the first furlong and a half, but faded badly with four furlongs to go and eventually finished ninth out of the 10 runners.

“We don’t know as yet what went wrong with her (Nuclear Affair). When she comes back to the barn we will have to assess her and see what happened,” Subratie said.