Alan Bansemer has literally sold the farm, declaring his days of running a full-scale thoroughbred operation are behind him.
Yet, without the Western Australian property that traded under the banner of Namerik Thoroughbreds and while working with a reduced bloodstock portfolio, ambition remains a constant racing companion for Bansemer.
That connection will be underpinned when one of the rising stars of WA’s sprinting ranks is fast-tracked into the $1.5 million Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
Bravo Centurion is one of WA’s best chances to fend off an eastern states challenge, ensuring Bansemer, even in retirement, is closer than ever to breeding the Group 1 winner he has always coveted.
“I have essentially retired. I’ve kept a few mares and I race a few but I’ve cut right back,” Bansemer told The Straight.
Bansemer has flirted with Group 1 success. He bred the dam of Helios Express, one of Hong Kong’s best horses, who will take on Ka Ying Rising in the International Sprint.
“I’ve bred a few horses who have run in Group 1 races without winning. Bravo Centurion could be the one,” Bansemer said.
For most of his working life, Bansemer juggled a role as one of Australia’s most distinguished health professionals with a passion for thoroughbred breeding that became a commercial business.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the health industry in 2022.
In a dedicated service to public administration, Bansemer supported the establishment of Medicare and the HIV response. Advocacy for public health and community-based counters to HIV and Aboriginal health were important causes to him, leading to his appointment as Western Australia’s Commissioner of Health from 1995 until 2001.
But Bansemer says breeding a Group 1 winner would give him more satisfaction than any recognition he received during a career as a senior administrator at a federal and state level.
Winterbottom Stakes runner Bravo Centurion makes it six wins on end. (Vision: YouTube)
Less than six months after selling the property he ran with his late wife Mary Scott near Serpentine, south of Perth, Bansemer’s wait might be over because of the backstory attached to Bravo Centurion, one of WA’s brightest prospects.
Yet Bravo Centurion’s first win didn’t come until Namerik was sold. The son of National Defense has marched from maiden ranks in July in an extraordinary rise reserved for only the most exceptional talents.
Trained by Luke Fernie, Bravo Centurion is on a winning streak that has answered every challenge.
Nothing has been able to match him for pure speed during an unbeaten sequence of six victories that continued at Group 3 level in the Prince Of Wales Stakes in early November.
He is the talk of WA racing, a state that has consistently produced sprinters equal to - or in some cases better than - their contemporaries in the east.
Placid Ark is an obvious reference point for Perth sprinters who have ruled in the east.
He cut a swathe through the best Melbourne and Sydney had to offer in 1987 in a year of dominance that started with the completion of the Lightning Stakes-Oakleigh Plate- Newmarket Handicap treble.
Miss Andretti, sent to Lee Freedman after winning nine of her first 13 starts in Perth in a record that included the 2005 Winterbottom, collected five Group 1 victories in Melbourne en route to success on racing’s most prestigious stage during Royal Ascot.
Then came Scenic Blast, who claimed the 2009 Lightning Stakes-Newmarket Handicap double at Flemington before emulating Miss Andretti as a King’s Stand Stakes winner.
If Bravo Centurion can fend off sprinters such as the 2023 Winterbottom winner Overpass, Victoria’s in-form Maharba and established Group 1 mare Lady Laguna, the four-year-old will be well on his way to becoming the next big thing in Perth racing.
“I’ve bred a few horses who have run in Group 1 races without winning. Bravo Centurion could be the one” - Namerik Thoroughbeds' Alan Bansemer
Should he win, he would become just the third WA-trained winner of the Winterbottom in the past decade.
And Bansemer retains the utmost faith that the horse he bred from the unheralded Authorized mare Comme Ca has much more to give.
Comme Ca’s racing career in Sydney under John Sargent was cut short because of injury, ensuring an early retirement and a date with young Group 1-winning shuttle stallion National Defense, a son of Invincible Spirit.
Warwick Barr
National Defense won the 2016 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and shuttled to Australia as part of the Sun Stud and later the Widden Victoria stallion rosters, standing for three Australian seasons until his premature death in 2022.
Sold for $40,o00 at the 2022 Magic Millions yearling sale in Perth, Bravo Centurion is a standout among National Defense’s southern hemisphere progeny.
He is also one of Bansemer’s favourites.
“Objectivity is not one of my strengths when it comes to horses,” Bansemer said.
“My view is he can win the Winterbottom. But then again, I'm forever hopeful. We'll find out on Saturday. It'll be a very good test for him.”
