Look through any set of Queensland Winter Carnival results and you will find that trainer Peter Snowden seldom targets feature races in Queensland without coming away with some success … but you will have to go a long way to find an easier win of his than that registered by the two-year-old colt Beadman in the Group 3 Ken Russell Memorial Classic at the Gold Coast.
The son of Snitzel who was a $900,000 yearling buy was a Maiden winner in his previous start in the second run of his career, but this was different class performance in oh so many ways … from the step up from Maiden to Group 3 company to the ease of the effort which carried him to a massive 8.30 length victory over the previously unbeaten Sunrays, the $3.60 betting sites second favourite, who was the only runner to finish within ten lengths of the winner.
While you have to allow that some of the runners stretched out in dismal fashion behind that were not suited to the particular conditions presented by the Gold Coast track on the day, you can’t take anything away from Beadman’s win.
James McDonald sent the Snowden trained $1.80 favourite into an immediate lead and Beadman maintained a comfortable but fairly narrow lead of just over a length through the sweep to the home turn.
His opposition was unlikely to know at that time that McDonald was merely biding his time though … but they found out quick enough when McDonald gave Beadman a squeeze just before straightening and, in the blink of an eye, Beadman skipped three lengths clear of his closest rival.
Then you could make it five lengths clear … and counting. With the race effectively over as a contest, Beadman’s run home then simply turned into a victory procession.
“Beadman’s in one race … the others are in another,” said the commentor in an apt description of what everyone was witnessing.
Seventy-five metres out McDonald turned and looked over his left shoulder to see where the opposition was.
There was nobody there.
Even daylight was having a hard time running second.
