Bigger things are expected from promising three-year-old Nobby Snip after the lightly-raced gelding battled through the heavy conditions to post his first stakes win at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Gai Waterhouse-trained Nobby Snip was sent out the $1.80 favourite in the Listed Fireball Quality (1100m) and wore down frontrunner Didntcostalot ($7) inside the final 100 metres to win by 1-3/4 lengths with Velrosso ($15) another head away third.
The victory was Nobby Snip’s fourth from just six starts and maintained jockey Tommy Berry’s perfect record on the gelding from three rides.
“He’s a very smart horse. In his first start he missed the kick a bit and ran second to Manawanui and from then on we’ve had a big opinion of him,” Berry said.
“Today he didn’t get through the heavy ground and was dipping and diving a bit. But he’s a typical Gai Waterhouse-trained horse, he’s really tough and wants to win.
“He can definitely go to a higher level, especially on drier ground. He’s a bit untapped at the moment.”
Nobby Snip has won up to 1400m and Waterhouse said the Group One Randwick Guineas (1600m) in two weeks was a consideration.
“We might go to the Guineas or we might stick to the shorter races,” Waterhouse said.
“We’ll have a talk about things in the next 24 hours but he’s certainly a promising horse.”
The Marc Conners-trained Didntcostalot took up the running and had the field chasing as he skipped clear rounding the home turn and went for home.
Berry knew Waterhouse wouldn’t have been happy watching from the stands as the leader kicked clear, but the jockey said he didn’t want to set out after Didntcostalot too quickly as Nobby Snip wasn’t comfortable in the conditions.
“Coming around the corner he was dipping and diving and I just wanted to get him balanced so he would hit the line,” Berry said.
“I didn’t want to get him off the bit chasing because if horses aren’t travelling around the corner then it’s very hard for them to win. I tried that and it worked so Gai was happy.”