Snowdens out to add Oaks to Slipper win

Wednesday 6 April 2016, 4:25pm

Father-son training duo Peter and Paul Snowden will try to cap their golden autumn carnival with a win in the ATC Australian Oaks.

After Capitalist gave them a Golden Slipper triumph, they now will rely on Happy Hannah and Self Esteem for victory in the carnival's classic for fillies.

Happy Hannah is a $4.60 second favourite for the Oaks after placing in the 2000m Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill.

"The run was excellent," Paul Snowden said.

"Going forward into an Oaks it's just what you want to see."

Since that run, Snowden is confident the filly has shown improvement as she builds towards the peak of her preparation in the Oaks.

"She's trained on well, she's drawn a middle gate, it's a big field, she handles (rain-affected) conditions - she's got a lot going for her," Snowden said.

The Snowdens' other runner Self Esteem was fourth in the Vinery, a half length behind her stablemate.

She was a $41 chance that and a $35 quote for the Oaks, but the strong performance last time didn't shock Snowden.

"She's come through the lesser class of grade into the Vinery and to see her run so well didn't surprise us at all," he said.

Snowden said Self Esteem would aim to be on the speed and rates her a chance if jockey Mark Zahra can control the tempo.

"It's a little bit of unknown territory, but she's tough as nails and she'll be there for a long way," Snowden said.

"I think it's vital Mark gets her sectionals right."

The Ciaron Maher-trained Jameka retains $3.50 favouritism after her second placing in the ATC Australian Derby.

The third line of betting is occupied by three New Zealanders, with Capella, Valley Girl and Sofia Rosa all $8 chances for the Oaks.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »