RANGES BOUND FOR GOLD COAST AFTER FINDING FORM
RANDWICK trainer Paul Snowden didn’t mince his words just over 12 months ago when talking about what he thought the future held for this year’s Ramornie winner, Ranges.
The six-year-old son of Shooting To Win has been one of the real surprise packets in Australian racing over the past year, after Snowden revealed he was close to being listed on the Inglis Digital sale platform.
“He was threatened to get the sack,” Snowden, who trains in partnership with his father, Peter, said.
“He was gone, running around in Benchmark 64s at Kembla and then all of a sudden, he came good.
“Maybe he’s like Mister Ed and understands English and heard the report saying, ‘this is it. If he doesn’t start pulling his finger out he’s gone’.
“He was deadset gone then he resumed at The Gong meeting last year and since then, different horse. That was the turning point.
“Now he’s won two Listed races and you wouldn’t find a more consistent horse.”
To give some perspective to the change in fortunes for the owners of Ranges, the gelding earned just over $160,000 in his first 25 starts from June 2019 until the end of the 2020/21 season.
Since then he’s had another two campaigns, and 12 starts later he’s a two-time stakes winner and has earned just shy of another $430,000.
Ranges is set to kick off his latest campaign in a 900m barrier trial at Canterbury on Tuesday with the Magic Millions Raceday on the Gold Coast on January 14 his main target.
“The Gold Coast is where it’s at for him,” Snowden said.
“He’s going up there for the new Syndication race, 1200m, weight-for-age and worth a million. It would be an amazing story if he could win a milliondollar race.”
Meanwhile, this year’s Magic Millions 3YO Guineas winner King Of Sparta is also set to trial on Tuesday, and again bounce for the Gold Coast in January.
“He’ll go first-up in the Razor Sharp then depending on how he looks and how he runs there will determine if he has another run before Magic Millions Day,” Snowden said.
“We’re looking at nominating him for both, the Cup (1400m) and the Snippets (1200m) and then decide which way we go closer to the day.”