The Matthew-Dunn trained Snitz will make his return to racing on Saturday, in the Listed Hawkesbury Gold Rush over 1100 metres.
The son of Snitzel won the Takeover Target Stakes at Listed level and ran third behind Everest winner Classique Legend by 0.7 lengths.
He was then sent to the paddock after a lacklustre run in the Ramornie Handicap.
The six-year-old then returned at the end of 2020, but was disappointing in his two starts, prompting his trainer Matthew Dunn to send him back to the paddock.
Now ready to hit the track again, Dunn says Snitz is back to his best.
“He’s great, he had his last gallop on Saturday morning and worked as good as ever,” he said.
“He just went a bit stale (last preparation), and he needs to be kept fresh. He just needed a break.
“He’s pretty easy to pick, you can tell where he’s at just by his headspace and how he works. His work’s been really strong.
“He’s fit enough I think, I think he’s pretty close, he’ll improve a bit on what he does, but that’s sort of how he normally races best.”
The winter is where Snitz made a name for himself, winning the Takeover Target Stakes and became the early favourite for the $1.3 million The Kosciuszko.
The gelding has won nine races to date and has made over $500,000 in prizemoney for his connections.
Dunn says the key to keeping the six-year-old winning, is to keep him fresh.
“I just want to make sure he gets plenty of space between runs this preparation,” he said.
“He’s getting a bit older now. It’s very important that he’s nice and fresh and bright when he goes to the races.
“We’re just taking it as it comes, he’s a really nice horse to just chase those fringe races, just the important thing is he gets spaces between his runs and he’ll stay up for a long time.”
The son of Snitzel will head to Hawkesbury instead of the Ortensia Stakes which takes place in a fortnights time.
He performed well when first-up last campaign, beating the likes of Groundswell and Trumbull by more than two lengths.
With the Queensland Winter Racing Carnival around the corner, there are many feature races that Dunn could target.
But Dunn says that black type doesn’t hold any value for Snitz, and instead they’ll look to make a buck out of the six-year-old this time in.
“We’ll figure it out whether he stays in Sydney, there’s a couple sort of quality handicaps he can go to in Sydney, still racing for good money every Saturday,” he said.
“He doesn’t really need to be going and chasing black type, he’s a six-year-old gelding now and it’s not really that important to him.
“As long as he keeps winning and keeps earning that prizemoney check that’s our main goal this preparation.”
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au