Peter Snowden has trained 17 Group 1 two-year-old winners, and he tells Matt Stewart that while the number of juveniles he trains has reduced, his approach to training is still evolving.
For a handful of years, before Annabel Neasham and Ciaron Maher, when Chris Waller’s eye was on imports and Gai Waterhouse was going through a lull, the “big colts” went to two entities.
If it wasn’t Team Hawkes, it was Team Snowden.
In racing’s oddball economy, where horses with flimsy foundations sell for more than houses with strong foundations, Peter and Paul Snowden were entrusted with the most expensive, yet untried, horses in the land.
Many didn’t make it, but enough did.
It was a dizzy world and Snowden had the work ethic but not the pedigree for it.
Peter had spent most of his life in the shadows, the humble foreman. During and after the Ingham and Darley eras, it was softly spoken Snowden who gave the final nod on the big yearlings. Amid the “oohs and ahhs” at the Gold Coast and Newmarket sales rings, Snowden was a central player.
“I learned very quickly that you feed and train a $10,000 horse exactly the same as a $2 million one,” Snowden said. “You had to block the price tag out. If they didn’t work out, I tried not to beat myself up about it.”
That magical era, from 2014 to about 2021, came after a fairly wild ride from 2008, where the long-time Ingham servant was elevated to the top job after the departure of John Hawkes.
Only a year later, the cerise livery was replaced by deep blue when Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley, now Godolphin, swooped in and bought out the most-loved sibling owners in Australian racing history.
Snowden trained a rapid-fire 28 Group 1 winners in that time.
These were both good and frustrating times. Snowden said the transition as “a real uppercut” at first, given his love and loyalty for the Inghams.
But it led to a phenomenal run and it continued beyond his six years with Darley, when Snowden opted out in 2014 to train with his son, Paul. Darley was out but colt buyers James Harron and Newgate were in.
Snowden was the stallion-maker. In the entwined worlds of horse racing and breeding, there is no more important gig.
Darley success stories Helmet, Sepoy, Denman and Epaulette were followed by Capitalist, Pride Of Dubai, Shooting To Win, King’s Legacy, Russian Revolution and Wild Ruler.
“There was one year (with Harron and Newgate) where we had 10 Group horses, including Capitalist. It exploded, 40-something winners,” Snowden said.
In 2011, Snowden ran riot in the big two-year-old races. Sepoy won the Blue Diamond Stakes and Golden Slipper, Helmet won the ATC Sires’ and Spring Champion Stakes and Benfica won the TJ Smith (now JJ Atkins) in Brisbane.
“It was a very, very good year, a feather in the cap for sure,” Snowden said.
He said there was an art in training two-year-olds, one he learned mostly from John Hawkes. There was no “type” that was most effective, although he says he sees a lot of Sepoy in Allan Kehoe’s fairytale Slipper-bound gelding Shaggy.
“Not big, neat, muscular,” he said. “But there was no rule. Hawkesy had a great system with two-year-olds. They were in and out of the stable and he always kept them stimulated.”
Snowden said the fortunes of Darley rested mostly on the homebreds. The broodmares were always strong but some sires failed to fire which parlayed into a slump for the racing stable.
That cycle has presented Godolphin with a contemporary downturn. Winners and runners are way down for James Cummings.
Some stallions are working, others not. Astern was recently shipped to Turkiye and Blue Point has had a far better run in Europe than Australia. No one knows yet if the progeny of Anamoe can gallop.
Snowden said the achilles heel of multi-million-dollar yearlings was no different than that of far less expensive horses.
“You can get anatomy faults in some breeds. Throat issues, bone chips. You can get a $2 million horse that’s gone in the wind before its first gallop, same as a two-bob horse. It’s no-one’s fault, it’s just the way it is,” he said.
Reflecting on his time at Darley, Snowden said: “They were fantastic years, amazing.
Sepoy winning the 2011 Golden Slipper. (Vision: YouTube)
“There was one thing that was hard to adjust to. They had some very good broodmares who were churning out so many good horses but each year, 10 of the best horses were sent to Dubai.
“Every Sandown Guineas winner for a few years, straight to Dubai.
“It was the nature of the business and I was grateful to be part of it but you nurture these horses, then they’re gone. Horses like Helmet and Sepoy. It was frustrating.”
As king of the kids, Snowden won three Blue Diamonds; Sepoy (2011), Earthquake (2014) and Pride Of Dubai (2015).
Snowden does not have a runner in the Blue Diamond on Saturday.
He has a couple of candidates for the Golden Slipper, a race he won with Sepoy (2011) and Capitalist (2016), but nowhere near the profile or numbers he once boasted.
Times have changed. He and Paul parted ways last year. Paul has bought a farm near Port Macquarie and is likely to train a small string. The focus is now on extending careers and distances.
Snowden tried and failed to rein numbers in post-Darley but has capped the Randwick stable at 70.
“I really wanted to change my lifestyle. I’d been going very hard for 26 years. With Darley you woke up to 250 horses every morning. It was very hard work. We wanted a smaller stable of 20 or 30 but it became 80, then 120,” he said.
That won’t happen again.
“I learned very quickly that you feed and train a $10,000 horse exactly the same as a $2 million one. You had to block the price tag out" - trainer Peter Snowden
At 68, Snowden is determined to remain hands-on and move beyond a career focused on big price tags, quick two-year-olds and rapid returns.
“Seventy – that’s enough for me. I’m not in it to compete with the big guys. Last year we had 35-40 two-year-olds, this year we are down to low 20s,” he said.
“Back in the day you’d make a call on them quickly. They’d be off to stud, off to Hong Kong or off to an online auction. But it’s all about longevity now; keep them going for as long as we can.”
Snowden-trained four-year-olds Fire Star and Need Some Luck have won four and two on the trot. Xidaki won the Winx Guineas last season. Youngsters are coming through, but the clock isn’t ticking. He has one two-year-old winner so far this season.
His horses are a slow burn. For the one-time king of the kids, this is refreshing.
“There are a handful of imports too. It’s a different stable but I’m really enjoying It. It’s nice to take a breather and take your time,” he said.
