Four-time Champion Sire Snitzel is at the top of his game with 32 stakes performers this season including Group 1 winners In The Congo, Wild Ruler & Yearning. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)

96th stakeswinner for Champion Sire Snitzel

It was a case of third time lucky for Scallopini who prevailed in a competitive finish for Saturday’s $125,000 Sunshine Coast Cup 1400m LR to become Snitzel’s 96th stakeswinner.

A thrilling finish to the Listed @SCTurfClub Cup and Scallopini won a hard-fought battle to the line… @RaceQLD pic.twitter.com/76aaHlB6J4

— Sky Racing (@SkyRacingAU) January 25, 2020

It was a well-deserved success at Scallopini’s third attempt in Listed company, and his 8th win from 20 starts for a large group of owners managed by Proven Thoroughbreds, which bought him with trainer Steven O’Dea for $200,000 from Yarraman Park’s 2016 Magic Millions draft. 

Stable representative Matt Hoysted said, “Scallopini really deserved this win…He can go for a spell now and we will look at the winter carnival where hopefully he will take another step.”

Bred by Steve Gillard, who has retained a share in him, Scallopini is the first foal of Rose Of Mulan, an unraced daughter of More Than Ready and dual Group winner Lady Mulan. This family descends from Miss Rhondda (by Palestine), imported to New Zealand in the 1960s by the famous Okawa Stud.  

Snitzel now leads the 2019/20 Australian General Sires’ Premiership by stakeswinners with a total of eight and has slipped past Declaration of War to take up 4th spot on the earnings list, just behind Rubick.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, the only two Snitzel yearlings offered at Karaka sold for NZ$375,000 and NZ$450,000. 

Three Snitzel colts will be offered at next month’s Inglis Classic Sale, two of them by Arrowfield and one by Aquis Farm.