OTI-owned Savabeel gelding Brambles is progressing well towards an autumn return with the Queensland Derby winner set to target the 2013 Australian Cup – The BMW double.

Queensland Derby winner Brambles will target the Australian Cup and The BMW next autumn

The Peter Moody-trained champ will make their four-year-old debut early next year after Brambles suffered a serious bout of travel sickness when returning home from their successful Brisbane raid during the winter.

In Queensland for the carnival Brambles enjoyed three consecutive Group wins, the big one being in the Group 1 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on June 9.

They bypassed the spring however with Moody and connections not wanting to push on with them after they initially failed to recover from a transfer from Brisbane to Sydney.

Whether the patient approach pays off will be known next season, Brambles being prepared for an ambitious 2013 autumn campaign.

“Brambles suffered from travel sickness after the Brisbane Winter Carnival and we opted to be very conservative with him and give him the spring off,” OTI director Terry Henderson explained.

Moody blitzed the weight-for-age autumn features last year with the imported Manighar who won the Australian Cup – Ranvet Stakes – The BMW treble – the first horse to do so in history.

Now the master tutor will look to win at least two of those same races again with Brambles after Henderson named the $1 million Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 9 and the $2.25 million Group 1 The BMW (2400m) at Rosehill Gardens on April 6 as two likely aims for the untapped galloper.

“With Brambles being a Group 1 winner it makes sense for him to also head to races like the Australian Cup and The BMW but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge yet,” he said.

Brambles will likely be joined in both fields again by the defending champ Manighar who is also owned by OTI and whose spring was also cut short when they suffered a minor leg injury.

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