Snitty Kitty’s trainer Henry Dwyer was so concerned the $180,000 horse was a dud he took her to the trials at Wangaratta so the owners would not watch her.
She had not shown Dwyer any signs she would break a race record in a group 2 sprint on Caulfield Cup day.
“We thought she was going to struggle to win a race,” Dwyer said. When she won the Wangaratta trial in wet conditions by 10 lengths, Dwyer thought he might have a wet tracker, a relief, but he was still coy with the owners when they asked his opinion.
A fourth-placed first start had him hoping he might salvage something and he was relieved when Snitty Kitty won a maiden at Mornington.
As she progressed through the grades he began to tinker with her gear, realising she went hard with blinkers, then backed off in pacifiers.
Wearing both she found the happy medium and won a listed race at Doomben, then won at Caulfield on October 1 carrying 60 kilograms.
Dwyer hoped she would run well in the group 2 Caulfield Sprint but the win confirmed in his mind that she deserved a shot at a group 1 sprint. “She does it without raising a sweat,” Dwyer said. “She’s a really dynamic mare and she keeps on improving.
“Once she puts it all together, she will be a pretty good mare.”
Her time of 56.28 seconds for 1000m smashed the race record of 57.50 that Lumosity set in 2015. “I think she’s a very dynamic 1000m or 1100m horse, particularly around here,” Dwyer said.
Article from The Sydney Morning Herald