News

Snapdancer runs them ragged in G1 Sangster

7th May 2022

Less than 24 hours after the 2022 Chairman’s Sale, a former graduate of the auction Snapdancer (Choisir) won her first G1 in today’s Sangster Stakes at Morphettville.

Snapdancer was sold as a weanling at the 2017 Chairman’s Sale, when renowned judge Sheamus Mills purchased her for $60,000 from the Coolmore draft.

The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained 5YO mare, who led all the way in today’s feature, has now won six of her 18 starts and earned $1.3m in prizemoney.

“I remember looking at her at Newmarket in 2017, she was stabled across the road in the back stalls and she was just a filly that fitted my criteria,’’ Mills, who has been a supporter of the Chairman’s Sale since its inception and spent $2,250,000 with partners at last night’s renewal, said.

“I’ve got a very simple sort of philosophy on these fillies in terms of what I look for, I have an acronym in my head that I work off – Walk, Attitude, Girth, Length – they have to have WAGL and she had all of those.

“I’m not that fussed on X-Rays, legs, height, anything other than those four criteria really and she ticked those boxes.

“She’s by Choisir who always gets a good horse. I’m also big on three-quarter relations and she’s a three-quarter to Drago – he by Danehill Dancer and she by Choisir – and I always liked Drago as a horse so I bought her and now she’s a G1 winner.’’

Snapdancer (pictured) becomes the 72nd G1-winning Inglis graduate since 2018 and becomes the third Inglis grad to win the Sangster Stakes in the past four years following previous successes by Bella Vella (2020) and Spright (2019).

She also continues the dominance of Inglis horses in the current Adelaide carnival to win G1s following the success of Glint Of Hope in the Australasian Oaks last weekend.

Winning co-trainer Maher added: “I couldn’t really make sense of what happened last start, whether it was track bias or whether she just didn’t like the [Flemington] straight [in the G1 Newmarket Hcp] so we freshened her up and pretty much the main thing with her is the start so I drilled that into [jockey] Ethan [Brown] and said if you get the start, the rest is easy.

“I was very surprised how easy she got across to lead so it’s a great result.

“The team has done a great job with her, she’s been up a long time…but she’s a G1 winner now so it’s all very much worth it.’’

Meanwhile in today’s feature at Gosford – the $500,000 The Coast – it was an Inglis graduates’ quinella when Rustic Steel (Deep Field) beat O’President.

It was the Kris Less-trained Rustic Steel’s first run since a close-up fourth in the Provincial-Midway Championships Final at Randwick on Day 2 of The Championships and gave him a sixth career win from just 12 starts.

Bred by Blake Sandblom and Henry Field, Rustic Steel is a $500,000 Easter Yearling Sale buy for Kieran Moore’s Tasman Bloodstock, from the Newgate Farm draft and races in the famous Wanless silks.

Runner-up O’President was gallant in defeat.

The talented 3YO O’President is being offered in the current Inglis Digital May (Early) Online Sale and proved yet again today that he has a fabulous career ahead.

With just nine career starts to his name, O’President has won three times already including the G2 Skyline Stakes as a 2YO, defeating G1 winner Captivant and G1 performer Hilal and looks an ideal candidate for any number of the valuable races through the Sydney Spring program.

The final countdown of bidding for the May (Early) Sale begins from midday Wednesday.

To view the catalogue or to participate in the sale, CLICK HERE.

Prior to the digital sale is the Australian Broodmare Sale tomorrow, which concludes a week of action at Riverside.

The Australian Broodmare Sale remains a hugely significant breeding stock sale in the context of the Australasian Bloodstock Industry, with dams of G1 winners such as Tofane, Shelby Sixtysix, Montefilia, Private Eye, Stay Inside, Funstar, Youngstar etc have been sourced at the sale in recent years, for as little as $1000, $8000, $13,000, $23,000 etc.

The catalogue of 189 broodmares features mares in foal to some of Australasia’s most desirable stallions including Russian Revolution, So You Think, Capitalist, Pierro, Deep Field, Toronado, Street Boss, Maurice, Spirit Of Boom, Shalaa and many others, as well as first pregnancies for a host of exciting new stallions like Anders, Bivouac, Doubtland, Farnan, Graff, Hanseatic, King’s Legacy, Lucky Vega, North Pacific, Ole Kirk, Prague, Tagaloa etc.

The sale begins at 10am.

To view the catalogue, CLICK HERE.