Snitzel stars dance at Randwick
Sizzling, Sweet Idea, Hot Snitzel, Flying Snitzel and Petrol Power – they’re all by Snitzel, they all won Group or Listed Races at two and then trained on to achieve further black type success in subsequent seasons.
Today Dances On Stars joined their company when he added the $100,000 ATC Carrington S. 1100 metres LR to the Kindergarten S. G3 he won as a juvenile.
The 4YO son of Snitzel found more obstacles than gaps in the first half of the Randwick straight, but he and a determined Brenton Avdulla persevered and finally found the space they needed to burst through and win by a short neck.
Dances On Stars has now won or placed in nine of his 18 starts and earned more than $350,000 for his owners Brian Mullins, Donna Keegan and Ann & Richard Glenister.
Dances On Stars was competitive enough to place in Guineas company during the Queensland Carnival last winter, and has benefited from three months in the paddock and off-peak race targeting by trainer Gerald Ryan.
Avdulla said, “He’s a very promising horse, and he was racing against the better three-year-olds in Brisbane, and he never disgraced himself. I got enough luck from the 100 [metres] and he was good enough to do it.”
Bred in New Zealand by the Hong Kong Breeders Club, Dances On Stars is from the Last Tycoon mare Starnet, a city-winning half-sister to dual Group 1 winner Miss Margaret, from the family of top-class 1970s mare Bellota.
Dances On Stars was originally purchased for $95,000 by Dynamic Syndications from Highview Stud’s draft at the 2011 New Zealand Premier Sale.
Earlier on the Randwick card, Snitzel’s 3YO daughter Estonian Princess made a trip to the Gold Coast for the $1 million Magic Millions Guineas more likely when winning in convincing fashion over 1400 metres. Her owner Viive Williams has already enjoyed Magic Millions success with an Arrowfield-sired runner: she and her husband Glenn raced the 2011 2YO Classic winner Karuta Queen (by Not A Single Doubt).
Dances On Stars is the 6th stakeswinner this season for Snitzel, who heads the current Australian General Sires’ table with more than $4.4 million prizemoney. Forty-one of his yearlings are on offer at next week’s Magic Millions including four fillies in the Arrowfield draft.
