Brave Raj (1984–2006) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who raced only one year but who earned 1986 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly honors and won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
A descendant of the great Nearco through both her sire Rajab and her dam, Bravest Yet, Brave Raj was bred in Florida and purchased by trainer Ben Perkins, Sr. for $24,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's February sale of 2-year-olds. After racing once, Brave Raj was acquired by California oil heiress Dolly Green. She entrusted her conditioning to trainer Mel Stute.
Brave Raj's 1982 earnings set a world record for fillies in her age group. However, a knee injury ended her racing career and she was retired to broodmare duty at Patchen Wilkes Farm in Lexington, Kentucky where she produced ten winners, including two who won stakes races. She died at Patchen Wilkes Farm on January 28, 2006, one week after losing a foal.
Famous quotes containing the words brave and/or raj:
“Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take,
May boldly deviate from the common track.
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,
Which without passing through the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its end at once attains.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Dogmatic toleration is nonsense: I would no more tolerate the teaching of Calvinism to children if I had power to persecute it than the British Raj tolerated suttee in India. Every civilized authority must draw a line between the tolerable and the intolerable.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)