Four-time Champion Australian stallion Snitzel is off to a flyer on the first day of the new season with a pair of promising 3-year-olds at Cranbourne.
The filly Kirribilli made the first repayment on her $1,000,000 purchase price when making a winning debut in the Ladbroke It! Maiden Plate (1200m).
Given the run of the race by Luke Nolen, the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained 3-year-old trailed the leader Chase Your Dreams before easing out into clear air to hit the front on the turn for home.
The Alabama Express debutant Maycomb made a long run from well back to finish an honourable second, with the Contributer (IRE) first starter Chase Your Dreams hanging on for third.
Sporting the colours of her breeder, John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds, Kirribilli was a $1,000,000 buy for Moody Racing from the Segenhoe Stud draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
She is the first foal of the winning Lonhro mare Darling Point a half-sister to the Listed Gold Coast Bracelet winner Dynasties (Sebring).
Darling Point is a daughter of the Group II VRC AV Kewney Stakes and Group II Moonee Valley Fillies Classic winner Empress Rock (Fastnet Rock), whose dam Empress Jade (Encosta De Lago) is a half-sister to Hong Kong legend Silent Witness.
Darling Point has had a troubled history in recent times. In 2021, she missed both Too Darn Hot (GB) and I Am Invincible and missed Snitzel and Too Darn Hot in 2022.
The daughter of Lonhro was sent to New Zealand last year for a date with Proisir.
The second winner for Snitzel came when the colt Pieris repaid the faith of trainer Robbie Laing when opening his winning account in the Renew Your Southside Membership Now Maiden Plate (1000m).
Ridden by Ethan Bown, Pieris was untroubled to defeat the Sir Prancealot (IRE) filly Alotofsoju by two and three-quarter lengths with the odds on favourite Renege (impending) a well-beaten third.
It was the Snitzel colt's fourth start. On debut, he finished sixth in the Group III Maribyrnong Plate, seventh in the Group III Blue Diamond Prelude, and ninth of 11 over 1000m at Flemington.
Laing said he was gutted.
“From day one, I thought he was a top colt, Laing said.
“Everyone who rode him, and I mouthed him, thought he was a Group 1 horse. So, imagine how disappointed I was to look at his form card. It’s pretty ordinary, but I think he is just lazy.
“When he pulled up at Flemington, beaten five (lengths), I didn’t have to hose him as he didn’t have a crack.
“I put the shades on him. I remember at the sales about ten years ago in Sydney I was mad keen on a Snitzel colt that Bert Vieira passed in. I wanted to train him, but he gave it to Gerald Ryan. When I spoke to Gerald, he said you dodged a bullet there; it’s no good. I saw him win the Black Opal by five, and I rang Gerald up, and I said I thought you said it was no good. He said Robbie, I put the blinkers on, and that was Trapeze Artist.”
Pieris is nominated for the TAB We're On (1410m) at Flemington on Saturday and Laing said there is every chance he will take his place.
“I have a very good memory, which often gets me into trouble, but I reckon Noel Kelly won the (VRC) Sires’ Produce Stakes with a little filly called Mulligatawny back in the seventies and backed up two days later to win the (Bloodhorse) Breeders' Plate. (Mulligatawny finished second to Skyjack in the Sires before winning the Bloodhorse Breeders’ Plate).
Laing purchased Pieris for $250,000 from the Baramul Stud draft at the 2023 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.
A half-brother to Group III-placed Fresh (Fastnet Rock), he is the seventh winner for the stakes-placed Savabeel mare Mother's Milk whose multiple Group placed dam Baileys on Ice (O'Reilly) is a sister to Group 1 VRC Patinack Classic winner Swick.
Mother's Milk’s Farnan filly fell short of her $65,000 reserve at the Magic Millions in January.
The daughter of Savabeel was covered by Bivouac last spring.
