Snapdancer Upsets Robert Sangster Field

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Snapdancer Upsets Robert Sangster Field
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Syndicator Brad Spicer plans to return to the Gold Coast with the May 7 upset winner of the Saora Robert Sangster Stakes (G1), Snapdancer, but not to immediately cash in on the mare's skyrocketing value as a broodmare prospect, instead chasing more Magic Millions race day riches and group 1 glory with the daughter of Choisir .

That could be as soon as The Goodwood (G1) at Morphettville on Saturday week or the Tatts Tiara (G1) at Eagle Farm during the Queensland winter carnival, an elated Spicer suggested last night from Melbourne.

"She is a really nice horse because we can freshen her, whether it's a three, four, five, or six-week freshen, so she's ideal for that sort of scenario," Spicer told ANZ Bloodstock News.

"She loves the beach, she does a bit of work down at Balnarring and the team know her. That's pretty much where she's lived whenever she's in Melbourne."

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Ridden by Ethan Brown for trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace from barrier 15 yesterday, Snapdancer scored by a length and a half over stablemate Away Game with favored September Run another length and a quarter away in third.

A winner of the $1 million Magic Millions Fillies & Mares in January, she also won the Robrick Lodge Triscay Stakes (G3) in February before a puzzling down-the-track performance in the Yulong Stud Newmarket Handicap (G1) at Flemington, a race in which a number of favored horses under performed.

"I couldn't really make sense of what happened last start," Maher said post-race.

"Track bias or whether she didn't like the straight, but we freshened her up and pretty much like what we did at the Gold Coast, and the main thing with her is the start.

"I said to Ethan, if you get the start, the rest is easy and I was very surprised how easily she got across (from the wide barrier)."

Snapdancer's Sangster success was also the first group 1 for the Alice Springs-raised Brown.

"To get it at such a young age, it is so surreal. I can't explain the feeling (as) I've been in that situation before and been run down. Ciaron said to just make sure I was on top of her in the gates."

Spicer was also rapt to be able to enjoy group 1 success with Brown, the pair creating a rapport about four to five years ago through the deeds of another talented mare in Platinum Angel.

"She jumped so well and she just got there so easily and, credit to Ethan, he just went with her and she traveled well in that soft ground," he said.

"Halfway up the straight I thought I'd better get off the couch because I think she's home."

A three-quarter sister to the stakes-placed Drago, the Coolmore-bred Snapdancer is a daughter of the Galileo mare Snapdragon whose value has soared courtesy of yesterday's group 1 victory.

Having already been through an auction ring twice, selling for AU$60,000 (US$45,270) to agent Sheamus Mills at the 2017 Inglis Chairman's Weanling Sale before being resold at the following year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to Spicer and original trainer Darren Weir for AU$180,000 ($141,156), yesterday's win could place her valuation closer to $2 million, if not more.

Snapdancer has now won six of her 18 starts and earned almost AU$1.3 million ($738,077) in prize-money.

"We thought she was worth between $1 million and $1.5 million before today and she can go back to the Gold Coast, carry 60 kilograms next January in a million dollar race, so we weighed it up and thought we'd put off selling her for another year," Spicer said.

"With her pedigree, she's out of a Galileo mare, so it is going to open up opportunities in both hemispheres. There will be major studs, and I won't name them, who I think will be pretty keen to have her in their broodmare band and hopefully she does end up with one of those so she can go to some of the best stallions in the world."

Her dam Snapdragon was sold to Aquis Farm in 2018 for AU$60,000 ($45,450) to support their first season stallion The Mission, a mating which produced an unnamed filly who will be offered for sale at the Gold Coast later this month. Snapdragon died in 2020.

While Snapdancer continues her career on the racetrack, runner-up Away Game will be one of the most sought after mares to be offered at the Magic Millions National Sale on the Gold Coast later this month.

Away Game has finished second in three group 1 races: the Longines Golden Slipper (1,200 meters), the Neds Oakleigh Plate (1,100), and now in the Sangster.

"Away Game, she must be the best bridesmaid in the country," Maher said.

Craig Williams said the well-supported last start William Reid Stakes (G1, 1,200 meters) winner September Run slipped at the start.

"That was detrimental from then on but she ran super to still finish in the placings," the jockey said.