PETER Snowden, a Scone-born and developed horseman, was unlikely to even dreamt at the time that a move to Sydney would see him reach Everest heights as a trainer.
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Following a brief career at Scone as a jockey, he progressed to the top rank of conditioners in the city as a private mentor for the Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed-headed breeding and racing colossus Darley – Godolphin.
In six years of conditioning their horses, he was the trainer of winners of 1260 races, including 28 at Group1 level.
In 2014, Snowden established his own stables at Randwick and, in partnership with his son Paul, has continued to prove one of Australia’s wisest and most accomplished trainers.
Among their good performers have been the elite Shooting to Win, Pride of Dubai Invader, Russian Revolution, Capitalist, Tycoon Tara, Miracles of Life, Hot Snitzel and not the least the new hero of Australian racing Redzel.
Last Saturday, October 13, before more than 40,000 brave fans, the six-year-old gelded Redzel swept to glory at Randwick under Kerin McEvoy for the second successive year in the world’s richest race on grass, the $13 million The TAB Everest over 1200m of heavy going.
His $6 million winner’s cheque took the son of Arrowfield’s record-breaking champion sire Snitzel and the Rubiton mare Millrich total earnings to $15,372,000.
He is now second behind world queen of racing Winks ($19,884,925) on most Australian money – and there can be very few sprinters anywhere in the world who have earned more.
Australia’s Champion Sprinter for 2017-18 and a good prospect for a repeat in 2018-19, Redzel has contested 28 races and won 14.
Besides the two victories in The Everest, high level wins have included the VRC Darley Classic, BTC Doomben 10,000, ATC Challenge Stakes and The Shorts Handicap.
He has also been runner-up in three Group1 races, the TJ Smith Stakes and the Galaxy in Sydney and the Lightning Stakes at Flemington.
Bred by Lee Fleming, the former owner of the Eliza Park Stud, now Sun Stud, and installer in its stallion yards of Bel Esprit, the sire of unbeaten Black Caviar, the performer who was to become Redzel was purchased as a weanling at a Sydney sale for $45,000 by the Marquee Stud, a high-quality agistment farm near Willow Tree and purchased by Triple Crown Syndications Sydney for $120,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Now, a big tribe of owners thrill to his success.
Born three weeks before his mother Millrich died, Redzel is one of two stakes champions among the seven winners she produced, the other being Danerich.
He is a Danehill winner of three sprints in Melbourne, including a Group 3, runner-up in the Group 2 Schillaci and sire of Group1 performers from use at the Rangal Stud at Euroa in Victoria.
He stands the 2018 season on $6600.
A first class two-year-old who won three races in Sydney at this age, including the Sweet Embrace, finished second in the Group 2 Magic Night and third in the Golden Slipper, Millrich is a sister to the dam of El Roca, the leading three-year-old sprinter for New Zealand 2013-14.
A son of the Danehill sire Fastnet Rock (Coolmore), El Roca stands at Gerry Harvey’s Westbrook Stud in New Zealand.
His first crop is two-year-olds.
Redzel’s grandam Mill Rani, a minor winner in Adelaide and dam all told of eight winners, is by Millionaire (GB), a son of the great English racehorse and world breed influence Mill Reef.