If Peter Snowden wins Saturday’s Golden Slipper with Sidestep, it will be some sort of training achievement.
The colt’s Slipper campaign appeared to have derailed two starts ago when he tossed jockey Corey Brown out of the saddle at the start of the Todman Stakes.
Sidestep - Photo by Steve Hart
Snowden was forced to find a Plan B and it was to run Sidestep seven days later in the Pago Pago Stakes.
The youngster was raw and green but his talent was such that he won.
On Saturday he will go into the world’s richest two-year-old race as the second pick behind dominant favourite Overreach.
He will do so on a seven day back-up and wearing blinkers for the first time.
Snowden said the gear change was not something he had kept up his sleeve, but rather a necessity.
“The horse told me he needed them. He told me we needed to do something looking at how he ran,” he said.
Sidestep was indeed wayward in the straight last start but his acceleration once he put his mind on the job was impressive.
Perhaps tellingly, stable jockey Kerrin McEvoy will ride him over Snowden’s two other runners, Guelph and Kuroshio.
But Snowden is refusing to buy into any hype, particularly given Sidestep’s rough road to the Slipper and the fact Saturday’s race will technically be his third in as many weeks.
“It’s not ideal. If Brown doesn’t come off two weeks ago it doesn’t happen this way,” he said.
“The horse seems to be taking it all quite well at the moment but I just don’t know.”
If Sidestep is the emerging horse on the scene, Guelph is the forgotten one.
Sent out favourite in the Blue Diamond Stakes in February, she had no luck from a wide gate and finished worse than midfield.
Snowden gave her a week in the paddock to recover and a recent barrier trial to brush off the cobwebs.
He believes her race experience will hold her in good stead in Saturday’s high-pressure race.
“I think just having race experience is a good thing,” he said.
“This is her second preparation … she knows what she’s got to do.”
Guelph has drawn barrier nine and Sidestep five while Kuroshio will have to overcome gate 16.
Kuroshio is a dual stakes winner in Melbourne and Snowden is banking on his gate speed helping him overcome his draw.
“He’s very fast. He’s drawn awkwardly but he’s got gate speed which helps.”
Overreach remains the $2.30 favourite with TAB fixed odds ahead of Sidestep at $10 with Guelph at $26 and Kuroshio an $81 outsider.
AAP
