Trainers say ratings downplay 2YO quality

RIVAL trainers Paul Snowden and Adrian Bott suggest their runners in today’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic have the capacity to improve into genuine topliners, even if rating experts are saying they are not yet there.

While the depth of this year’s race has been lauded as perhaps the best ever, independent analysts Timeform are yet to elevate any of today’s runners to the same status as some of the great winners of years gone by.

Farnan (110) and King’s Legacy (108) are the two top rated Timeform runners in this year’s field.

Daniel O’Sullivan’s weightfor-age performance ratings paint a stronger picture of this year’s 2YO Classic.

While none is yet to go into what he would describe as “elite” territory, the field does include seven of the top 12 rated two-year-olds to race this season on his WPR chart.

Snowden said the quartet of runners he and his father Peter saddle up today are all regarded among the stable’s best babies this season.

“They are definitely not second stringers. To treat a race like this with a thought like that, you’re going to come up short,” Snowden said.

“(Aim and King’s Legacy) look like they have the gears to improve if they get the right runs. I would have loved Stellar Pauline to draw one to six … she had the most improvement coming out of her first-up run.”

Bott said Farnan was only lightly raced and it was possible he would reach the elite status as the season goes on.

“He showed significant improvement at his second start from the Canberra maiden to Wyong and there’s no reason he can’t take the same improvement again going into (today),” he said. “With time he could get to that quality you need for a (Golden) Slipper.”