Inglis to sell Snapdancer at Chairman’s after swooping on mare for Everest slot
Deal struck with Spicer Thoroughbreds for dual Group 1-winning daughter of Choisir to contest $15 million race in October
Dual Group 1-winning mare Snapdancer (Choisir) has been locked in for this year’s $15 million The Everest (1200m) in the slot owned by Inglis in a deal which ensures the top-class sprinter is sold through the auction house’s Chairman’s Sale once the mare’s stellar racing career comes to an end.
Managing owner Brad Spicer and Inglis last night confirmed they had reached an agreement for the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained six-year-old, a last-start winner of the Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), to run in Sydney’s drawcard spring event at Randwick on October 15.
An “over the moon” Spicer was delighted to have secured a slot in The Everest via Inglis, a partnership he said “fits beautifully”.
“The 1200 metres at Randwick really suits her. Obviously she’s got to go up in grade again, but every time we’ve lifted the bar with her she’s definitely gone to it, so she’s still on the rise and hopefully she can do herself proud in a race like that,” Spicer told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“All the correspondence from Ciaron and Ethan Brown (jockey), they’ve both said that her gallop before the Memsie suggested she’d gone to that next level again. She’s on the improve, which is phenomenal, but I suppose being out of a Galileo mare probably tells the story there.
“She was very sparingly raced as a young horse, so that’s a testament to the way we’ve brought her along, nice and slow, and she seems to be peaking now as a six-year-old.”
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said a clause in the contract meant Snapdancer would be sold via the auction house, ruling out any potential sales pitch from rival Magic Millions.
“She’s a fantastic race mare, maybe a mare we haven’t seen the best of yet, she’s only had 20 starts and produced what effectively appears to be a career peak at her past four runs and she’s run 1:07.6 seconds at Randwick over 1200 metres,” Hutch said yesterday.
“She brings to the races a pretty exciting set of credentials and the opportunity to be involved with her, given she’s an Inglis graduate, somewhat fittingly a graduate of the inaugural Chairman’s Sale.
“There’s quite a good narrative around it and hopefully she can go to the race and perform to the best of her ability and where that will see her land, no one knows, but that is what is exciting about the race and racing in general.”
Inglis’ connection to Snapdancer is via the company selling her as a weanling through the 2017 Inglis Chairman’s Sale when purchased for $60,000 – the equal second cheapest foal sold at the auction – by agent Sheamus Mills who on-sold her to Spicer for $180,000 at the following year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
In her 20 starts so far – netting seven wins including a $1 million Magic Millions Fillies and Mares (1300m) victory on the Gold Coast in January, and three subsequent Group victories – she has earned $2.027 million in prize-money and is likely to be worth near to that amount again as a broodmare.
Hutch said Inglis’ recruitment process to fill its Everest slot was a 12-month process, suggesting the company and fellow slot investors had faced the scenario where owners of Australia’s quality sprinters were seeking alternative options given the probable dominance of current $2.80 favourite Nature Strip (Nicconi), Eduardo ($8) and Mazu (Maurice) ($8).
“Undoubtedly, the prize-money structure across a series of different races has created more options for owners and trainers in terms of their programmes. That in turn has made it more competitive for slotholders,” Hutch said.
“If the owner of a particular horse has the alternative of going to a hugely valuable race and not have to take on the likes of Nature Strip, Mazu, Classique Legend, Eduardo, Masked Crusader and Lost And Running, it would feel like there’s people leaning that way rather than being part of a fantastic race, a $15 million race, but it is a hugely competitive one as well, to the point of almost being daunting.
“By the same token, we’ve done our due diligence in the way we normally would and we’re quite delighted to take up Snapdancer.”
Ethan Brown, who won the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in May and the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield first-up on Snapdancer, will retain the ride in the rich slot race sporting the Spicer Thoroughbreds silks.
Spicer revealed Snapdancer would run in The Everest without another run. She has raced six times this calendar year, with at least four weeks between each start.
Her only unplaced run came in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) in March when drawing the outside barrier for the Flemington straight-track race, in which the placegetters came down the far side.
In between winning the Robert Sangster and the Memsie, she was runner-up in the Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm in June, finishing half a length behind Startantes (Star Turn).
“They’ve (Maher and Eustace) got a really good game plan and that’s been effective all year now where she’ll just trial about ten days out and then head into the race nice and fresh,” he said.
“That’s been her pattern for her past five or six runs where she’s gone in fairly fresh, she seems to race best that way.”
Snapdancer will also be the first runner in the Everest for Maher and Eustace whose dual-state stable goes from strength to strength.
“Obviously it’s going to be a star-studded race with Eduardo and Masked Crusader and some of the up-and-comers such as Mazu, but she’s run super at Randwick over 1200 metres, she’s run extraordinary time,” Spicer said.
“I think she’s got the third-fastest time at Randwick over the 1200 [metres], so it certainly puts her in the mix to run a drum. Can we win? I am not sure, but you know what, it’ll be one hell of a ride for all the owners.”
A slot holder since the inaugural running of The Everest in 2017, the best-placed finish by an Inglis runner was third in 2020 with the Gordon Richards-trained Gytrash (Lope De Vega), with connections splitting $1.3 million in prize-money.
Fell Swoop (Not A Single Doubt) ran last in the field of 12 in 2017, Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega) ran sixth in 2018, In Her Time (Time Thief) ran ninth in 2019 and Gytrash again represented Inglis last year, finishing seventh behind Nature Strip.