Snitty Kitty tops off Snitzel’s stakes treble
Two 3YO colts and a mare – Dracarys, Jukebox and Sweet Redemption – supplied Snitzel’s first stakes treble of this season, on 19 August.
Two months later, same story, a pair of 3YO colts and a mare – but three different horses. This time it was Snitzepeg, Goodfella and Snitty Kitty completing a snappy 1-2-3 on Caulfield Cup day in Melbourne and Sydney.
And it’s Snitzel’s third same-day triple stakes success in less than seven months. (The series began with Invader & Diddums at Randwick, and Heavenly Blue in South Africa on 1 April. Invader, remember, led home a Snitzel trifecta in the ATC Inglis Sires’ Produce S. G1.)
At Caulfield, Snitzepeg followed up his Poseidon Stakes win two weeks ago with a gritty performance to overhaul the pace-setting Lord Sundowner and claim the $120,000 MRC Gothic S. 1400m LR. It was the colt’s third success for Hong Kong-based owner Peter Law and trainer Darren Weir.
Watch Snitzepeg win the MRC Gothic S. LR.
Hopes are that Snitzepeg can follow the example of the stable’s 2015 Gothic Stakes winner Mahuta, who went on to complete a sequence of five straight Group & Listed victories that season.
Snitzepeg was purchased for $260,000 by Darren Weir and John Foote at the 2016 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale. Bred in Victoria by Jeff Allis from the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Pegasus Queen, he was offered by Three Bridges Thoroughbreds.
Pegasus Queen has a 2YO Not A Single Doubt filly named Killer Queen in training with Anthony Freedman, and a yearling colt by Deep Field.
Next up was 3YO Goodfella who, like Snitzepeg, has progressed sharply this Spring after an active juvenile campaign. He started favourite in the $150,000 ATC Brian Crowley S. 1200m LR at Randwick, but his chances didn’t look bright as he swung five-wide round the turn and Piracy picked up ahead of him.
However, Jason Collett had plenty of horse beneath him and Goodfella responded generously in the final stages to win by a half-length from Piracy and Andaz.
Watch Goodfella win the ATC Brian Crowley S. LR.
Goodfella is Snitzel’s 73rd stakeswinner and the first winner that his dam Movie (by Red Ransom) has produced for Newhaven Park Stud, which sold the colt for $200,000 to Bjorn Baker & Blandford Bloodstock at the 2016 Magic Millions Sale.
Back in Melbourne, Snitzel’s 4YO daughter Snitty Kitty confirmed her star quality with a 2.25-length victory in the $200,000 MRC Caulfield Sprint 1000m G2 where she was simply too strong and too fast for Super Too and Fatinah.
Watch Snitty Kitty win the MRC Caulfield Sprint G2.
Snitty Kitty was bought from the Willow Park Stud draft by her trainer Henry Dwyer for $175,000 at the 2015 Magic Millions Sale and has earned almost $390,000 from six wins for a group of owners that includes her breeder Gordon Henderson. It’s a total she looks capable of increasing significantly over the next 12 months.
Snitty Kitty is the best of three winners left by Lassiter’s Cat, an unraced daughter of Tale of the Cat, from the well-known “Leica” family that has produced two Victoria Derby winners, Redding (in 1992) and Nothin’ Leica Dane (in 1995).
Remarkably, Snitzel is collecting plural stakes wins more often than singular ones this Spring. Ten of his progeny’s 18 stakes victories since 1 August have been either doubles or trebles, and all but two of them have been achieved in Sydney or Melbourne.
Eight members of Snitzel’s outstanding 2014 crop, all of them colts, have contributed to that tally: Group 1 winner Trapeze Artist, Group 2 winners Menari & Showtime, Group 3 winners Dracarys, Jukebox & Perast and Listed winners Goodfella & Snitzepeg.
