Here, There, Everywhere

The Age

Friday November 16, 2007

John Schell

The new trainer for the famous 'cerise' stable will chase winners all over the place, John Schell writes.

THE role of Woodlands Stud's new trainer, Peter Snowden, is simple - win as many races as possible, wherever possible.

Snowden officially takes over the reins of Bob Ingham's Crown Lodge stables in Sydney and Carbine Lodge base in Melbourne tomorrow, John Hawkes having left to set up a family stable with sons Wayne and Michael.

Snowden acknowledges the Warwick Farm stable will miss Australian Derby winner Fiumicino and multiple group 1 winner Mentality, both of whom will stay with Hawkes, who is setting up at Rosehill and Flemington. "But we've still got some good-class horses with us," he said.

"Instead of having so many outside-owned horses, most will be Woodlands Stud gallopers. Of 300 horses on the books, only about 30 now will be owned by other clients and they will be people whose mares head to Woodlands Stud.

"So there will be 270 Woodlands horses made up of all different classes. The main aim is to win races, as many as we can, so you'll see a lot more of our horses making trips to the provincials again. It will be up to us to make the best of what we have."

Snowden had riding success in the country areas and from five mounts in the city he had three winners before, at 25, weight got the better of him. He took to training, spending nearly seven years at Scone in NSW, where he had 150 winners.

"I spent the first 12 months leasing horses and getting them going and had a bit of luck," he said. "Peter Flynn (now studmaster at Woodlands) was at Segenhoe Stud at the time and offered me the chance to train for Lionel Israel. I did that and it was successful. We had a lot of cast-offs from city stables, fillies that Segenhoe didn't want to go to stud as non-winners, so we took them around the countryside to win races with them.

"It was in 1987 or 1988, around that time, that Trevor Lobb (Ingham Bloodstock general manager) actually rang me up," Snowden said. "He told me Crown Lodge was just starting to buy horses and they wanted someone to pre-train for them. I had about 25 in work myself at the time, so I took half a dozen and did that for about six months. By that stage, I had the offer to come to Sydney to work at Crown Lodge. I thought long and hard for about seven or eight weeks and with things being hard in the bush, I took the plunge.

"I went down a few weeks before the family (wife Lyn and children Paul and Lisa) to check things out," he said, fearful that "in those sort of jobs, you sometimes get promised the world and end up with an atlas". "But the two owners I was going to work for, Bob and Jack Ingham, had been in racing a long time and were successful. They weren't just a flash in the pan."

On arrival at Crown Lodge some 191/2 years ago, Snowden worked under Vic Thompson. When the Inghams split with Thompson in 1993, Hawkes took over and Snowden was the one with the experience of running the giant operation.

"John is a different bloke altogether to Vic, the opposite," Snowden said. "It was a huge job he walked into. When he got there, he had 100 horses in work and didn't know one from another. I was there for him, which was a help for him. We've bounced off each other ever since and he has been a great bloke to work with."

Hawkes won nine Sydney trainers' premierships in a period he has dominated along with Gai Waterhouse. Darren Beadman was stable rider for much of that time, but with Beadman riding in Hong Kong, Snowden has another factor to deal with as he tries to keep Crown Lodge on top. "When you lose the best rider in the country from your stable, it is a big gap to fill, naturally," he said. "But there is no shortage of good jockeys around and . . . we have Rod Quinn, who has been with us for many years, and he is a great horseman."

Snowden has spent the past week in Melbourne, where Carbine Lodge has 30 horses in work, with the Sydney racing scene having been crippled by the equine influenza breakout.

"We've got 84 in work at Crown Lodge but none will trial until the end of December and they won't run until the new year," Snowden said. "But we might have a runner or two in Melbourne in a couple of weeks."