Hot Snitzel found the going too tough at Doomben and could only manage third with Free Wheeling impressing with his win in the Champagne Classic.

The Golden Slipper runner was a short priced favourite going into the race but his performance was riddled with faults and he simply didn’t have enough to go on with it at the end.

The horse never settled for Corey Brown and he ran up three wide on the turn without cover.

As they came down the straight it looked like he still might have the talent to win but Free Wheeling stormed home in the final 100m.

Even he though wasn’t perfect and it took plenty of strength from Bowman to keep the horse straight.

“He’s only lightly raced and lacked a bit of confidence” Bowman said.

“What he did do is he settled beautifully for me in the run.”

There’s no doubt there’s plenty of improvement in the horse yet though and he could turn into a real quality race horse.

“I’d be keeping an eye on this bloke for the rest of the carnival,” Bowman said.

“He has a great feel and a bright future.”

It was a sentiment also shown by Peter Snowden who backed his charger going into the race and certainly wasn’t surprised with the performance.

“He’s relaxing really well now, glad to see that today.

“He gathered them up quickly.”

One thing that did concern him though were the problems towards the end of the straight.

“I’ve never seen him do that before,” Snowden said.

Form here the plan is pretty clear with yet another juvenile triple crown on the radar for Peter Snowden.

“The Sires’ is his next target in a fortnight and then hopefully the TJ,” he said.