If veteran Huetor can win the The Beauford at Newcastle, not only will it mark an incredible training performance from Peter Snowden, but it will serve as testament to the resilience of the horse.
The gelding’s journey has twice been marred by career-threatening setbacks, the first a serious eye infection suffered in 2022 which required two bouts of delicate surgery, the other a shocking tendon laceration incurred in last year’s Caulfield Cup.
“He got galloped on in the Caulfield Cup last year near the 1800-metre mark, really badly,” Snowden said.
“When he came back in, we saw all this blood down his leg and to see the tendon, it was a horrible sight.
“The vet said, ‘we’ll save him, but he will never race again’.
“He has been through the wars, but he keeps coming back.”
While managing to resurrect his career following the Caulfield Cup injury, Snowden was concerned it might have been in vein when the dual Group 1 winner was comprehensively beaten at his first three runs back.
In a last-ditch bid to reinvigorate him, he fitted him with blinkers and Huetor responded with an eye-catching fourth in the Rosehill Gold Cup (2000m) to earn himself a shot at The Beauford (2300m) on Saturday.
“That was his last chance. I said to the owners, ‘if he doesn’t do something today, I don’t want to keep sending him around finishing where he is. I’ll look after him. Give him to me and I’ll look after him forever’,” Snowden said.
“Low and behold, he bounced out and did what he did.
“It’s not the perfect race for him but I’m keen to run him because his work is great and he’s going well.”
Snowden saddles favourite Grand Prairie in another of the day’s features, the Spring Stakes (1600m) in which the Group 3 winner appears well placed under the set weights conditions.
He failed to handle the Melbourne way of going when unplaced at Flemington over the carnival but had previously been competitive against some of Sydney’s better three-year-olds.
“He’s just got to get a mile. That’s the only box he’s got to tick,” Snowden said.
“But he’s such a relaxed horse and he has such a big action, I’m fairly confident he will run it out.”
