Snowden to play the long game with I Am Invincible fillies
Silver Slipper fancies Cythera and Ebhaar likely to be spelled after Rosehill Group 2 rather than chase Golden glory
Trainer Peter Snowden has sprung a major surprise as Sydney’s two-year-old scene heats up by revealing his Silver Slipper (Gr 2, 1100m) chances Cythera and Ebhaar will most likely spell after tomorrow’s race rather than continue towards the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m).
Both I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) fillies are among the main fancies for Sydney’s first juvenile Group 2 of the season, over 1100 metres at Rosehill. Cythera was yesterday a $7.50 third-favourite after taking Randwick’s Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1000m) on debut, while Ebhaar was at $9.50 having followed her Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) win at Caulfield last spring with a first-up ninth in the fillies’ Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at Rosehill.
Cythera is at $26 and Ebhaar $51 for the Golden Slipper but the Team Snowden pair would firm considerably with forward showings this Saturday. Snowden said both have progressed well since their last runs, and forecasts dramatic improvement from Ebhaar after a hampered run as favourite three weeks ago.
The accepted rule for decades has been that any Australian owner with a classy two-year-old would naturally be eyeing off the Golden Slipper, the world’s richest juvenile race, to be held this year on March 19 carrying a boosted $5 million in prize-money.
But as tempting as the Rosehill Group 1 obviously is – and in a season with fillies dominating the two-year-old landscape – Snowden yesterday said that while he was yet to speak with their owners, Cythera and Ebhaar would almost certainly be sent to the spelling paddock after tomorrow, with only a slight chance their performances might change his mind.
While a huge admirer of I Am Invincible and his stunning record at stud, the seasoned Snowden believes the Yarraman Park superstar’s stock reward connections better at an older age if not overworked at two.
“They won’t be taxed any more than this. Both of them will probably be going out for a spell after Saturday,” Snowden told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I won’t say for sure until after the race, because I don’t know how they’ll run. Things could change dramatically after the race, and I haven’t spoken to the owners about it either yet. But at this point, in my mind, both fillies have done enough for this preparation.
“I don’t want to over-tax them. I’ve had this breed before, and they don’t need to be hammered too much too early. If you want racehorses out of them, give them a bit of time and space their runs, and you’ll get better horses out of them later.
“Vinnie’s done a good job, for sure. He gets two-year-old winners but he gets better horses at three and four. I’ve had a few of them before, and they’re much better afterwards.”
Snowden said Cythera, a $420,000 Easter purchase for John Moore’s IRON syndicate bred by Highgrove Stud’s Ron Gilbert, had progressed well since her Lonhro Plate win on February 5, when she sat at leader Spacewalk’s (Exosphere) girth before holding out Lady Laguna (Overshare) by a neck.
“She’s only a little filly but she’s very precocious and she’s come through that last run in good order,” he said. “For her first start in a race, off one barrier trial, she did a good job. She’s got a lot of quality.”
The trainer’s comments suggested Emirates Park’s Ebhaar might be more the one to watch on Saturday. Punters scorned her first-up run as $2.10 favourite when ninth in the Widden, 11-plus lengths behind winner Queen Of The Ball, another daughter of I Am Invincible who’s a short $2.75 Silver Slipper favourite.
But Snowden yesterday said Ebhaar had been hindered by her own slow start, compounded by the stop-start nature of the race in a field of ten fillies, and on a Rosehill day notoriously favouring the pace and the fence. While she takes on colts and geldings this week, Snowden is looking forward to a more genuine pace in a 13-horse field.
“Last time, she was a touch slow away, the front two went very hard early then dropped anchor at the first corner. By the time she picked up speed she then had to react to what they did up front, and she started over-racing quite badly,” Snowden said.
“She beat herself there, but that won’t be the case on Saturday. There’s a lot more speed in the race to be able to ride her forward without her over-racing, and that should help her at the end.”
Snowden, who won the female edition of the Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 2, 1100m) last week at Caulfield with Revolutionary Miss (Russian Revolution), said it was a good season to have a smart two-year-old filly.
“The boys have done nothing. Up until this point it’s all been fillies for every two-year-old race. Unless something jumps out of the ground very quickly, it’s definitely going to be a fillies’ Golden Slipper,” he said.
Queen Of The Ball benefitted from the Rosehill pattern to lead and win the Widden by almost four lengths from Revolutionary Miss, with another subsequent winner in Mumbai Jewel (I Am Invincible) running sixth.
Co-trainer Michael Freedman said the Go Bloodstock homebred may instead sit off the pace this week from gate three, and echoed Snowden’s thoughts on her sire in saying she had benefited from a light spring of just one start for a second.
“I haven’t had a lot of Vinnies, but the ones I’ve had I’ve not pressured too much before Christmas,” Freedman told ANZ. “They’re very natural horses, so it’s tempting for a trainer to get stuck into them a bit early, but I think they’re a breed that do like being given a bit more time.
“But obviously Vinnie’s got a great record with the number of stakes winners he’s had. They’re good horses to train, because they seem to be good doers and they cop whatever’s put to them. I think anyone would agree they’re a good breed to have in the stable.”
I Am Invincible dominates the Silver Slipper, with five of the 13 runners, while his great rival Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) has three, including $8 shot Best Of Bordeaux and Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou’s Boyfriend, a $23 chance after a debut fourth to Cythera. Ryan is predicting improvement, based on that run and his view of Snitzel juveniles.
“They’re better at the back end of the season,” Ryan told ANZ. “His stats say that. Everyone’s got him up as a sire of mad running early two-year-olds, but they’re always better two-year-olds in the autumn than they are in the spring.
“Everyone who owns a two-year-old at this time of year is thinking ‘Slipper’, but I’m pretty excited about what a three-year-old he’ll turn out to be. In saying that, he’ll win a nice two-year-old race. The other day, he finished that race off better than anything else. His last 200 (metres), especially his last 100, were the best in the race. He really hit the line well.”
Much Snitzel-focused interest will centre on first-starter Magic, the Team Hawkes colt who topped last year’s Sydney Easter sale at $2.5 million, the Arrowfield titan’s second highest ever lot after Mount Fuji, the $2.8m purchase for James Harron at Easter, 2019.
Despite his pricetag, Magic is only a $34 chance after minor placings in all three of his barrier trials, with the fact his dam Rising Romance (Ekraar) was an ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner perhaps a pointer to later development.
While there are strong market chances to deny I Am Invincible and Snitzel – such as second-favourite Shalatin, by another Arrowfield sire in Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), and Godolphin’s Exceed And Excel (Danehill) filly Ojal at $8 – the pair’s strong hand serves as a snapshot of the modern thoroughbred landscape.
The two are dominating Australia’s general sires list on the score of stakes winners. Snitzel sits first with 13 winners of 15 stakes races to the 11/13 for I Am Invincible, who despite his feats still awaits a general title. The latter holds primacy on prize-money – at $12.34 million to Snitzel’s $9.87 million – though they fill the minor placings behind Nicconi’s (Bianconi) $12.40 million, earned mostly through Nature Strip’s $6.75m Everest (1200m) payday.
The pair can both claim the advantage over each other on this season’s two-year-old sires’ list. Vinnie has it on winners, by six to five, and stakes winners by three to two. Snitzel holds prize-money primacy by around $160,000, with his Blue Diamond Prelude (Gr 3, 1100m) winning colt Lofty Strike tipping in $252,000, and I Am Invincible’s top rep Counttheheadlights earning $120,000.
They sit fourth (Snitzel) and sixth (I Am Invincible) on the two-year-old earnings list behind Magic Millions winner Coolangatta’s sire Written Tycoon (Iglesia). Lyndhurst Stud’s Better Than Ready tops the winners category with eight, with his fellow Queenslander, Eureka’s Spirit Of Boom, sharing second spot with six.