Jeanneau has broken her maiden at Randwick to put herself in the frame for rich autumn two-year-old races but the Magic Millions hopes of Detective are almost certainly over.
With the field in the gates before the 2YO Plate on Saturday, Detective nudged forward and hit his nose and mouth on the front of his stall, knocking out a tooth.
Jeanneau
The Peter and Paul Snowden trained colt, who had been favourite for the race, was a late scratching and with just $30,000 in the bank from his second to stablemate Capitalist in the Breeders’ Plate, would not make the Magic Millions field.
Capitalist is the raging favourite for the $2 million race at the Gold Coast in two weeks.
In Detective’s absence, the Paul Perry-trained Jeanneau ($6.50) came from midfield to score an impressive 1-3/4 length win over Highland Beat.
It was Jeanneau’s third start following a second in the Gimcrack Stakes in October and fifth in the Inglis Nursery earlier this month.
“She is improving all the time,” Perry’s foreman son Shannon said.
“In the Gimcrack she had no luck and then she should have run third at her last start so it’s good to see her win.
“She’s small but she’s a good little racehorse.
“The target is the Slipper but how we get there has yet to be determined.”
The $3.5 million Golden Slipper is at Rosehill on March 19.
Things didn’t get much better for the Snowden stable when Barood ($7.5) looked to have the 3YO McGrath Estate Agent (1200m) in his keeping before being gathered up by Sir Bacchus ($5.50) who won by half a length.
Sir Bacchus is trained by Chris Waller who has not completely ruled out a Magic Millions Guineas start but said it was unlikely.
