Given a positive ride by Rachel King, Godolphin's two-year-old Shooting To Win filly Special Snap broke her maiden over 1200 metres at Warwick Farm on Wednesday to credit her first season sire with his ninth individual winner.
Making her fourth trip to the races, following a narrow defeat at Canterbury at her previous start, Special Snap was the best to begin but King elected to let Splendid Surprise push through to lead with the favourite Rotator tracking that pair.
When King gave Special Snap a shake-up, the James Cummings-trained filly quickly dropped Splendid Surprise and was safely holding Rotator to win by a length with the weakening Splendid Surprise three and a quarter lengths back in third.
A half-sister to the Listed ATC South Pacific Classic winner Handfast (Street Cry) and Listed MVRC Mitchell McKenzie Stakes winner Rusambo (Elusive Quality), as well as the stakes-placed Engagement (Street Cry) and Chipanda (Sepoy), Special Snap is the eighth foal of the Anabaa mare Lobola who had been purchased by Woodlands for $500,000 at the 2006 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
A runner-up at Canterbury in a two-start career Lobola has proved a sound investment.
Godolphin sold off her Sydney winning daughter Wedding (Commands) to Bruce Perry Bloodstock/Jamieson Park for $370,000 when carrying a Lonhro filly at the 2016 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale and at the same venue the following year sold Lobolo's stakes-placed daughter Chipanda (Sepoy) to Newstar Bloodstock for $550,000.
Of the nine winners sired by Shooting To Win (image Mark Smith ), six have come in the metropolitan area. He trails only Better Than Ready (20), his brother Deep Field (18) and Rubick (15) for number of individual winners.
The Group 1 Caulfield Guineas winning son of Northern Meteor will stand at a fee of $22,000 at Darley Stud, Aberdeen in the forthcoming season.
