Peter Snowden’s big-race experience with top juveniles proved invaluable for the second time this season when Pride Of Dubai claimed another Group One win in the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Randwick.
Importantly for the trainer, it came on a day when many of the colt’s high-profile owners were trackside, including Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, Teo Ah Khing from the China Horse Club and a delegation from Coolmore Australia.
Pride Of Dubai became the first two-year-old this season to win a brace of Group One races when he added Monday’s feature to his Blue Diamond Stakes victory, a feat Snowden did not envisage when the colt first arrived at his stable.
However, Snowden’s past experience working for Crown Lodge convinced him Pride Of Dubai might just be an accidental two-year-old.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be in a situation where I’ve worked with some very good horses and this is what good two-year-olds do, they do things they shouldn’t be doing and they do them with ease,” Snowden said.
“Octagonal was never a two-year-old but he almost won a Golden Slipper.
“I’m not saying this horse is in that category yet but he’s doing things that he shouldn’t be doing.
“He should have got beat today the way he raced and where he was in the run but he showed some championship qualities and pulled out plenty at the end.”
Ridden by Hugh Bowman, Pride Of Dubai ($4.60) was trapped wide without cover but his tenacity won out at the end and he scored by three-quarters of a length from dead-heaters Rageese ($15) and Odyssey Moon ($11).
The victory was vindication for Snowden and his co-trainer and son Paul who lead the decision not to run Pride Of Dubai in the Golden Slipper.
Their next choice will be whether to press on to the Champagne Stakes on April 18, something China Horse Club managing owner Teo Ah Khing said would be discussed among the youngster’s owners.
“We need to talk to our partners Sheikh Khalifa, Coolmore and John Murray and see what is next for him,” Teo Ah Khing said.
