Peter and Paul Snowden are gearing up to have one of their strongest ever representations in the Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast with a multitude of two-year-olds on target for the $2 million race.
The father and son training partners have three of the top five fancies in early markets, led by nominal favourite and Breeders’ Plate winner Empire Of Japan.
The stable won the feature in 2016 with Capitalist , who went on to claim the Golden Slipper, and they came desperately close to capturing it again earlier this year when Russian Conquest narrowly failed to reel in Coolangatta.
While thrilled with the team they have heading towards the January 14 race, Peter Snowden knows how hard it is to win.
“It’s exciting, but it will be even more exciting if we get up the pointy end of the winner’s cheque,” Snowden said.
“It’s good to have chances and at the moment we’ve got a few irons in the fire. Hopefully we can make one of them count.”
The Snowdens’ had two runners in this year’s Magic Millions Classic (1200m) but their squad for the 2023 renewal looms as their deepest yet.
While Snapback fell just short of putting himself in the frame when runner-up in the opening race at Randwick on Saturday, Empire Of Japan has maintained his place at the top of bookmakers’ markets since his impressive victory in September, while Godfather and Sovereign Fund share the third line of betting at $11 after making winning debuts in recent weeks.
However, Snowden isn’t getting ahead of himself and despite the strength of their team on paper, he says there is a lot of water to flow under the bridge with the race still almost a month away.
“A lot of things can happen with two-year-olds day to day,” he said.
“But it’s good to have a few chances of going up there for such a big race.”
Russian Conquest is also on a path back to the Gold Coast for either the 1300m fillies and mares’ race or the Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) after scoring a Randwick trial win during the week.
“She is good as gold. She will run in the Gosford Guineas in two weeks and she will go up to the Gold Coast after that,” Snowden said.