Bennett Racing Blueblood Snitzel mare Snitzanova, after a brilliant ride by Zac Lloyd, shone like the diamond she is when racing away for an easy win in the 1 Mil Magic Millions Subzero 2200m on Saturday and in doing so became Bennett Racings first ever Magic Millions race day winner !
Such a superb training effort by Ciaron Maher and his Team along with his brother Declan who has trained the mare out of his new Gold Coast base since coming to Queensland.
The Group 2 Sandown Guineas winner over 1600 metres at three, Snitzanova was backing up after last Saturday’s hard watch in the 500k MM Wave where nothing went right and the mare flashed home for 4th beaten 2 Len. She was also stepping beyond 1800 metres for the first time but relished the extended journey.
Zac Lloyd produced a polished ride from barrier 13, settling Snitzanova in behind Group 1 winner and second favourite You Wahng before running her down inside the final 200 metres to win by 1.3 lengths. Miss Joelene – last Saturday’s Magic Millions The Wave (1800m) winner, closed late to finish third, another 1.2 lengths behind.
Trainer Ciaron Maher said it was a pleasure to again combine with Bennett Racing in a lucrative feature. “That was beautiful,” Maher said. “I was a bit worried about how the race was going to unfold because she can get on the bit and she pulled over 1800 metres last week. But she was a bit unlucky and monstered the line the other day. Zac gave her a beautiful ride and with that decent tempo, it was like mile pace so she actually dropped her head and relaxed. Bennett Racing are very good at picking their horses – Nath, Phil, Rick and their team do it very well.”
Lloyd was aboard for Snitzanova’s maiden win in October 2024 and praised the training performance of Maher to extend her winning record to 2200m as an older mare. “It was a great training performance by Ciaron to get her to step up over 2200m,” Lloyd said. I won her maiden over 1300m at Randwick. “This could be her trip. “It’s always a struggle with her to get her to relax but today was beautiful because I was able to get onto the back of You Wahng and she took me everywhere. “My mare was very strong late.”
The win took Snitzanova’s overall career to 11 starts, 4 – 1 – 0 $1,027,050.
A very valuable daughter of Champion sire Snitzel (Dec), she was a 200k purchased from the 2023 Magic Millions Yearling Sale from her breeders Arrowfield Stud.
Snitzanova is a rare Snitzel bred to stay being from blue blood Galileo mare Albanilla (GB) , whose dam Altitude (Green Desert) is a half-sister to triple Group 1 winner Alborada, and dual Group 1 winner Alkbanova, the granddam of the English and Irish St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov , Group III MRC Coongy Cup winner Kingswood (GB) and Alalcance (GB). Snitzanova’s third dam Alouette has spawned a massive dynasty of Group winning stayers for Lanwades Stud headed by Champion European race mare Alpinista winner of Gr1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Unfortunately Albanilla (GB) died in October 2023.
Congratulations to all owners in Snitzanova and thankyou to the whole Team at Ciaron Maher Racing & Declan Maher Racing for having the mare ready to win this 1 Mil Magic Millions race.