Flying filly Snitty Kitty was too slick for the older horses in winning the Listed $100,000 AMGROW Lightning Handicap (1050m) at Doomben today.
Snitty Kitty was able to win the Lightning Handicap at Doomben for trainer Henry Dwyer, above. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Winning jockey Tim Clark had Snitty Kitty ($4.40 favourite) quickly out of the gates to sit outside of the leader Prompt Return ($4.60) and the pair had a real dog fight for most of the way down the straight.
Snitty Kitty got the better of Prompt Return at about the 50m mark and was then able to hold off the fast finishing Upstart Pride ($11) who knocked Prompt Return out of second place.
Snitty Kitty was dropping back 50m in distance after running second to Miss Debutante in the Listed $150,000 Denise’s Joy Stakes (1100m) at Scone on May 13 and Clark said that helped the three year old filly collect her first feature race win.
“She ran really well at Scone and coming back 5om in distance was a positive,” Clark said.
Clark also was impressed with the win as he said that Snitty Kitty was uncomfortable on the tight turning Doomben track.
“She didn’t get around this track at all so for her to tough it out, it was a good performance,” Clark said.
“She is a good filly especially around these short trips.”
“If she would have adapted to this way of going she would have won by a lot further.”
Snitty Kitty had done the majority of her racing around the Melbourne way of racing with her only previous attempt at going the clockwise way being at Scone.
Lightning Handicap Results
| Finish | No. | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Margin | Bar. | Weight | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | SNITTY KITTY | Henry Dwyer | Tim Clark | – | 5 | 54kg | $4.40F |
| 2 | 2 | UPSTART PRIDE | Michael Nolan | Blake Shinn | 0.3L | 2 | 58.5kg | $11 |
| 3 | 5 | PROMPT RETURN | Toby Edmonds | Jeff Lloyd | 0.5L | 1 | 55.5kg | $4.60 |
| 4 | 15e | COLINELLE | Steven O’dea | Paul Hammersley | 1.5L | 8 | 54kg | $17 |
| 5 | 6 | LONDEHERO | Matthew Dunn | Robbie Fradd | 1.8L | 13 | 54kg | $14 |
| 6 | 8 | IRISH CONSTABULARY | John Symons & Sheila Laxon | Patrick Moloney | 2L | 12 | 54kg | $26 |
| 7 | 7 | SIR STATHAM (NZ) | Kelly Doughty | Kerrin McEvoy | 2.8L | 11 | 54kg | $18 |
| 8 | 13 | ANOTHER WHISKEY | Steele Ryan | Glen Colless | 3.5L | 3 | 54kg | $31 |
| 9 | 3 | INTO THE RED | Kelso Wood & Patricia Gesler | Luke Dittman | 4.1L | 4 | 57kg | $31 |
| 10 | 11 | INVINCIBLE EXPRESS | David Vandyke | Jim Byrne | 4.8L | 9 | 54kg | $6.50 |
| 11 | 12 | MISERY | Darren Bell | Jason Collett | 5.1L | 6 | 54kg | $13 |
| 12 | 9 | HIGHLY GEARED | Garry Kirkup | Mathew Cahill | 9.7L | 7 | 54kg | $21 |
| 13 | 4 | HIDDEN PEARL | Barry Lockwood | Brad Pengelly | 12.7L | 10 | 56kg | $17 |
