Saturday's G1 Doomben 10,000 has drawn a large field of 15 sprinters, and while plenty of the runners have solid form to fall back on the race advertises itself as a rematch between the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Snitzel (Aus) pair of Russian Revolution (Aus) and Redzel (Aus). The heavily favoured 3-year-old Russian Revolution beat Rezel by a neck in Rosehill's G1 The Galaxy H. on Mar. 18, and was sixth after racing too keenly when last seen in the Apr. 1 G1 TJ Smith S., whereas Redzel returned to win the G3 Hall Mark S. on Apr. 15. Russian Revolution enjoyed a 3 1/2 kilo weight-break from his stablemate in the Galaxy, but back to weight-for-age he gets just a 1.5 kilo advantage on Saturday.
Peter Snowden, who is at Doomben to oversee his charges, told Racing.com, “On Saturday it is the first time [Russian Revolution] has drawn a decent barrier. He has drawn five, and there are three or four horses that will roll forward and that should help [him relax]. He has had five weeks between runs, which is good for him; he had a nice trial last Tuesday week and trialled strongly.”
“The only downside–and there is no downside with the horse, he is 100%–but just meeting really good horses at weight-for-age is not ideal for 3-year-olds,” Snowden added. “They don't get much advantage, it is only 1.5kg which is very little, considering he is having to take on some really hardened sprinters, the 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds. He is a good colt, he is there to run well and he will be hard to beat.”
Of the 4-year-old Redzel, Snowden added, “Redzel loves wet ground. This track is definitely going to be wet come Saturday, it is nice and sunny this morning, to my way of thinking it will have to be wet. The last time these two met in The Galaxy, which is a handicap, Russian only beat him a neck. Under weight-for-age conditions he is a lot better off so he might turn the tables.”
Those hardened sprinters referenced by Snowden include the defending winner Music Magnate (NZ) (Written Tycoon {Aus}), as well as TJ Smith third Fell Swoop (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) and Group 1 winners Japonisme (Aus) (Choisir {Aus}) and Rebel Dane (Aus) (California Dane {Aus}).
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