WHEN Snitzagirl pulled away from her rivals in the final meters of the Tyers Park straight on Friday afternoon to post her first career win, it ended a patient wait.
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A member of Rick Worthington’s Warwick Farm stable, four-year-old mare Snitzagirl ($7.50) had just one prior start before lining up at Bathurst.
That was a second at Goulburn on August 3.
Prior to that, plenty of work had been done before she made her trial debut at Warwick Farm in July.
But being a daughter of Marechal, a former Stakes winner who was from the first lot of Danzero yearlings, Worthington knew he had to be patient.
“The Marechal’s all need time,” the former horse breaker and educator turned trainer said.
Lining up in the Harvest Fillies and Mares Handicap (1,208 metres) with Bobby El-Issa in the saddle, Snitzagirl got the best of the start from barrier one.
While then handing up as Russian Ahead and Super Cyclone went by, Snitzagirl was still well positioned in third at the 800m mark.
El-Issa guided her along the rails and after balancing at the top of the home straight – despite pulling wide – she had the lead.
There she stayed, holding off the fast-finishing favourite Feather ($2.60, Koby Jennings), who came from near-last to finish just under a length off the pace.
Third went to Schill Rock You ($17, Mitchell Bell).
Greg Dean was on hand to watch the race for the Worthington stable and saw the sort of promise that would please the trainer.
“After that first run at Goulburn, she was very green, so she took a lot out of that run,” Dean said.
“She’s still raw, you could see by the way she took that corner that she’s still hard to handle. But she will have learned a lot from this run and there should be steady improvement.”
Dean was impressed with El-Issa’s ride – he was in the saddle when she ran third in her maiden trial as well – and predicted further success for the mare.
“Rick has been really patient with the horse, he believes there will be more wins in store for this horse if everything goes to plan,” he said.
“Great ride by Bobby and it would also be remiss of me not to pass on Rick Worthington’s many thanks to the owners of the filly, Ross and Denise Smyth-Kirk, for their loyal and long lasting support.”