Snapper lands Flemington catch

[Wandering Eyes]

Five-year-old gelding Snapper (NZ) (Power) capped a bumper day for Trans-Tasman trainer Michael Moroney when winning the $A150,000 World Horse Racing Grand Handicap (1100m), the final race of the Flemington carnival.

The son of Power was another Kiwi bred sprinting success story down the straight course at headquarters, following Moroney’s earlier Group One triumph in the Champions Sprint (1200m) with Roch ‘N’ Horse (NZ) (Per Incanto).

Like his Group One winning stablemate, Snapper is a graduate of Moroney’s Matamata stable which is headed by training partner Pam Gerard.

Sent out a $20 chance, Snapper was prominent throughout and pulled out too many guns to score by three-quarters of a length from runner-up Najem Suhail (Starspangledbanner), a Group Two performer in South Africa.

Group Three-placed as a juvenile in New Zealand, Snapper has now won five races from 20 starts, with a further four placings.

Prior to Saturday, all of the gelding’s victories had come at The Valley, with winning rider Jordan Childs doing a sterling job to nurse him down the Flemington straight under 61kgs.

“He’s an on speed horse that you’ve got to utilise, they went along at a good gallop and he actually just had a resting run where he was,” Childs said.

“I was confident when I pressed the button he was going to find but I was just happy to be patient and let him build through his gears before I asked for that extra effort and he still got a little bit lost down the straight but he was able to hold them off.”

Moroney said he has long had an opinion of the speedster and now he has ticked the Flemington box, he could look at some sprint races on his home track through the summer.

“He’s always been a very good horse and we put him in a couple of big races (including the Gr.1 William Reid Stakes, 1200m) and he’s just taken a while to come on this time around,” Moroney said.

“Then I turned him out. He wasn’t really pleasing me coat-wise so I backed off him and then I said to the owners (that) he has come right so let’s keep going.

“We were possibly going to run today and then go to the paddock so we’ll probably keep going now on that.

“It was a very good ride today, he just sat and saved him and he waited. He cuddled him to the front.”

Snapper cost $60,000 as a yearling from the Cambridge Stud draft at the New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 sale at Karaka when purchased by Paul Moroney and has now earned A$310,388 in prizemoney.

All of the stable’s runners ran well on Saturday, with Tokorangi (NZ (Redwood) third in the Gr.2 Matriarch Stakes (2000m), Sound (Lando) fourth in the Gr.3 Queen’s Cup (2600m) and Bankers Choice (NZ) (Mongolian Khan) a close-up sixth in the Gr.1 Champions Stakes (2000m).

Moroney also saddled the runner-up in Tuesday’s Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) with Emissary (Kingman).

“Champions Day, I feel like a champion today, we’ve won a couple (of races). It’s great,” Moroney said.

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