Since arriving in Australia last Spring, Sneakers has shown plenty of ability on the training track. Today at Cranbourne on her race debut, she showed she has a lot to learn but steamed to the lead and was never really threatened.
Good friends of the stable Murray Hardy and Paddy Preston in New Zealand entrusted Nigel and our client and friend Ian Lewis to put together a group to lease Sneakers in late 2015.
Upon arrival, Sneakers took a preparation to settle and relax in her track work, wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. She showed this trait a little today as well, but a win is a win.
Finding herself on the pace but over-racing, Patrick Moloney chose wisely not to fight her and allowed her to roll forward into the lead. Hugging the fence around the Cranbourne circuit, she kicked away impressively at the top of the straight to win by almost a length – perhaps tiring a little at the end after the effort she put in early.
Sneakers is by Stravinsky, a winner of the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket (UK) and the Group 2 Nunthorpe Stakes, and crowned European Champion Sprinter in 1999. Her dam is the High Chaparral mare High Heels. So she is well named!
Stravinsky is the sire of 74 stakes-winners world-wide. 43 of those were in Australia/New Zealand at an impressive 7.5% of runners. We hope Sneakers can add to those statistics in time.
High Heels is a half-sister to brilliant Group 1 winner and multiple Group 2 winner Veloce Bella, and a daughter of High Chaparral who is positioning himself as a future champion broodmare sire. He is already damsire of our own Suavito and fellow Group 1 winner The Wow Signal, along with impressive winner Leotie on Saturday.
One of the many reasons Nigel, Ian and all the owners liked this filly so much, is that she boasts the same Stravinsky / Sadler’s Wells cross as two of Stravinsky’s best progeny – Serenade Rose and Soldier’s Tale. This was a smart mating plan by Murray and Paddy in New Zealand, so we hope Sneakers can pay them dividends in years to come after what we think will be a successful racing career with Blackiston Racing.
We will focus on finding a suitable second race for Sneakers. On type and pedigree she should be successful over more ground, but she will likely be kept in the 1200-1400m range until she learns to settle in her races.