By Bren O'Brien
Star sprinter Redzel (Snitzel) rounded off his preparations for his racetrack return in Saturday week's G1 Black Caviar Lightning S. with an easy trial win at Randwick on Thursday.
Redzel, a dual winner of Australia's richest race The Everest, will tackle a top-quality field in the Lightning, including G1 VRC Sprint Classic winner Nature Strip (Nicconi) and G1 Manikato S. winner Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible).
He may be seven, but he looks to have lost none of his speed, leading all the way with the blinkers on in his second trial of the campaign to win by 1.5l in a time of 52.52s over the 900 metres, covering the final 600 metres in a slick 33.70s on the soft track.
Quackerjack (Not A Single Doubt), the last start winner of the G2 Villers S. was second, having sat on the pace with Redzel, while the winner's stablemate, the highly rated filly California Zimbol (I Am Invincible) was third, another 0.5l adrift.
Two other top-quality fillies, Libertini (I Am Invincible) and Funstar (Adelaide {Ire}), finished fifth and seventh respectively, having sat off the pace and worked home late.
Redzel's co-trainer Peter Snowden was very pleased with how the veteran finished off the trial and he is now set on a path to Melbourne to a race in which he was beaten into second two years ago.
Peter Snowden
"Everything has been the same as normal with him. He is just a professional horse that enjoys his work and is a great doer," Snowden said.
"He still has that zest for racing at the moment so we will keep going one race at a time."
"He still has that zest for racing at the moment so we will keep going one race at a time." - Peter Snowden
The opening Group and Listed trial was over 1000 metres and was won by Group 1 placegetter Greysful Glamour (Stratum) narrowly from Sweet Deal (Casino Prince).
Group 1 winning colt Prince Fawaz (Fastnet Rock) put in another good trial, finishing third, while 9-year-old Happy Clapper (Teofilo {Ire}) came home well out deep as he closes in on another campaign. G1 Australian Oaks winner Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) and G1 Australian Derby winner Angel Of Truth (Animal Kingdom {USA}) were further back in that trial.
Multiple Group 1 placegetter Dreamforce (Fastnet Rock) made it back-to-back impressive trial successes in the 1200 metre Heat 3 and is now destined to resume in the G2 Apollo S. on Saturday week.
Later in the session, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott's promising 3-year-old Yao Dash (Smart Missile) returned with a strong trial win over 742 metres.
Yao Dash had three starts in his first campaign, winning his first two impressively before finishing fourth in the G1 Golden Rose S.
The Snowden-trained Sahra (Hinchinbrook) won the faster of the two 2-year-old open trials over the 1030 metres. As yet unraced, she stopped the clock at 1:02.71, edging out stablemate Falcon (Not A Single Doubt).
The Peter Robl-trained Shimbashi (Better Than Ready) withstood the Snowden army to win the other 1030-metre heat in 1:03.68.
The Snowdens' Stunning To Win (Outreach) ran the fastest of the three 2-year-old trials over the 742 metres, with the filly leading all the way in a time of 43.79s.
Watch: Stunning To Win trial
The two colts' trials were completed in 44.46s, with the Aquis owned and Gerald Ryan prepared Kumasi (Snitzel) winning one and the John Thompson-trained Mamaragan (Wandjina) the other.
Mamaragan's trial featured a strong return from G3 Breeders' Plate runner up Postcode (Vancouver), who led most of the way, as well as a good finish from the $2.8 million colt Mount Fuji (Snitzel), who put his recent difficult racetrack debut behind him.
