By David Nagel
Champion trainer Peter Snowden is no stranger to putting a saddle on some serious horse flesh – and he may have uncovered another potential star after My Whisper toyed with her opposition at Sandown Hillside on Wednesday.
Snowden – now in partnership with his son Paul since 2014 – was the talk of Australian racing in 2008, as head trainer for the Australian arm of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Darley racing operation.
The pinnacle came in 2011 when Snowden made a clean-sweep of all five juvenile Group 1 races, with Sepoy (Blue Diamond, Golden Slipper), Helmet (ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes, Champagne Stakes) and Benfica (T.J. Smith) all at the top of their game.
Stars of the breeding barn – Denman and Epaulette – are just two others that had success due to the Snowden polish.
The Snowden’s now have over 100 group wins since joining forces in 2014, with Capitalist, Captivant, Hot Snitzel, King’s Legacy, Redzel and Wild Ruler just some of their horses to have tasted Group-1 success.
And while My Whisper still has a hell of a long way to go to reach that lofty level…she is giving every impression that a mid-week $50,000 BenchMark-64 Handicap (1300m) will be nothing more than a stepping stone.
The three-year-old Frankel/Hersigh filly made it back-to-back wins with gun jockey Jamie Kah keeping her out of trouble early, before exploding wide down the straight.
My Whisper smashed her opposition, with the fast-finishing Wrote To Arataki two lengths adrift in second.
“She was fantastic, it was a less than ideal run for her, but I just didn’t want to upset her and drag her back,” Kah explained of decision to keep the filly wide.
“I didn’t think we were going to get cover unless we dragged back, so I just kept her happy, trusted that she was good enough, and she was.
“I would rather have been where we were than be back last.
“In the end I was happy, we got a bit of cover early when they were sorting their order out and she relaxed fantastic.
“She has a tendency to overdo it, but she was great and there are definitely bigger races in store for her.”
The Snowden’s stable representative, Andrew Angelone, suggested that several factors were against My Whisper on Wednesday, and almost forced the stable to scratch her from the race.
“She just keeps improving, we were umming and ahhing this morning on whether to run her or not because of the bad gate, the rail’s out, but when they come around the bend it was hard to not be confident,” Angelone said.
“First up she was still very green, and we had to urge her to get to the line, but today she just seemed to travel really well.
“Jamie had her in the perfect spot, the way the race was panning out…and we’re very happy.”
Angelone said the stable was wary of not pushing the petite filly too hard, but may step her out over more ground for her next adventure.
“That will be determined by her because she’s not a very big filly,” Angelone said.
“She’s handling everything right at the moment, but we don’t want to push her too hard, she’s got a lot to learn and is going to go so much better when she gets older.
“If she gets through this alright maybe we can push onto the next one over 1400.”
My Whisper made an inauspicious debut at Geelong in September last year, but has now won races at Kilmore and Sandown after returning from a five-month spell.
Other highlights of the Sandown program were winning doubles to trainer Grahame Begg and jockey Damien Thornton, with some tight finishes also the order of the day.
Racing returns to Sandown Hillside this Wednesday 16 March.
