Peter Snowden admits a Caulfield Guineas start will be hard to resist after Shooting To Win brought his trackwork prowess to race day with a dominant Stan Fox Stakes win at Rosehill.
The emerging talent claimed the scalp of Golden Rose runner-up Scissor Kick who was again trapped wide and lost no admirers with his effort to finish second.
Shooting To Win
Shooting To Win was hustled into a midfield position after a slow start but from there he enjoyed a charmed run.
While $1.85 favourite Scissor Kick worked hard throughout the race and was at full throttle at the top of the straight, Shooting To Win ($4) ambled up inside runners and powered away to score by three lengths.
For Snowden, the victory was a reflection of the talent the three-year-old had been building towards producing in a race.
“It’s what I’ve wanted to see because he always shows plenty at home but it’s been a very slow learning curve for him putting it all together on race day,” Snowden said.
“What I liked today was he travelled really nicely, he quickened really nicely and he really kept quickening through the line. His splits would have been terrific the last 400-metres.”
Bookmakers reacted to the victory and Shooting To Win firmed from $26 to $11 for the Caulfield Guineas.
Connections will weigh up the merits of a trip to Melbourne but it will be difficult not to start an in-form colt in a stallion-making race.
“We will have to think about it really hard now. I’ll have a good talk to (owners) Penny and Trev tonight and see what their thoughts are,” Snowden said.
“They’ve got a very special horse and the probably should give him the opportunity to go to the next level.”
Winning jockey Tim Clark said Shooting To Win was still learning his trade and while impressive, needed to improve his racing manners to take the next step.
“He’s still doing things wrong, he missed the kick again today and the small fields here have been helping him,” Clark said.
Paul Messara was again ruing Scissor Kick’s misfortune after Tye Angland got him into a perfect position shortly after the start, only to be bumped wide by Jeff Lloyd on Modoc.
Stewards investigated the incident but found Scissor Kick was a victim of circumstance and no rider was at fault.
