Snowden makes most of Darley farewell

It didn’t take long for Peter Snowden’s last day as Darley Australia’s trainer to turn into a monster celebration of his six years with one of the world’s biggest thoroughbred concerns.

Snowden started the annual Hawkesbury stand-alone meeting on Saturday by training the trifecta in the first race before he supplied the quinella – with a tip for the future – in the second event.

Meursault - Photo by Steve Hart

“Looking at the meeting my best chances were always going to be early and that’s the way it has turned out so far,” Snowden said.

Snowden moves into a new phase of his career on Sunday when he joins forces with his son Paul in a training partnership out of Randwick.

But in the Claret Stakes winner Meursault, it seems Snowden will be leaving a racetrack legacy that might be up with the best horses he has trained for Sheikh Mohammed.

“This race is a good sounding board for Brisbane and I think both horses, in my eyes, should be going there,” Snowden said.

Meursault was the least fancied of Snowden’s two runners in the Claret with Farolitos, ridden by No.1 stable jockey Kerrin McEvoy, starting favourite.

They controlled the race from the front with Meursault kicking away under Christian Reith for a decisive win.

“I had nothing between both horses in ability but I thought the other horse with the race experience helped him a bit more,” Snowden said.

“Both are quality horses. They are by a sire (Medaglia D’Oro) that means nothing to me now that I’m going, but I really like him.”

Generalife ensured Snowden made the perfect start to the meeting when he led home a trifecta for Sheikh Mohammed-owned horses in the first race.

Given the right run by Josh Parr, Generalife ($9) defeated stablemates Imperil and Suit in the Westaflex Handicap (1300m).

“All day we’ve tried to place the horses the best we can and this whole meeting sorted of suited a lot of horses today” Snowden said.

John O’Shea takes over as Darley trainer on Sunday.