Snow kennel hopeful of Ipswich winner

By Jordan Gerrans

Stalwart trainer Keith ‘Ned’ Snow has identified Pre Cruise as the best winning chance of his trio of dogs set to descend on Ipswich on Thursday evening.

The Cornubia-based dog man thinks being in the second event of the evening – to be run over 520 metres – will suit the black bitch best, who has recorded six career wins at Ipswich.

From a Dyna Villa and Princess Canute litter, Snow believes Pre Cruise will be ready to go from the outside box in a Masters fifth grade event.

“The good part about her is that she has an early race as she often plays up in the kennels,” Snow said.

“She will be hard to beat I thought being in an early race as she is often in later races.”

The veteran trainer prepares a team of 12 dogs, which was a much higher number in his earlier years in the industry, and is getting ready to welcome a new batch of youngsters to his kennel.

He has six pups that are around 15 months old from a Raw Ability and Deb's Penny litter, who are not far away from making it the track.

Snow has had success with brood bitch Deb's Penny as she produced six-time career winner San Polo, who will also represent the kennel at Ipswich on Thursday night.

“We start all over again with them,” he said.

“They are well bred, being out of San Polo’s mother.

“They go all right.”

San Polo is the most prolific dog Deb’s Penny has produced, with Mischievous Girl also registering three wins, who Snow prepares as well.

Following Snow’s three runners on Thursday night, he will be back at the track once again on Friday with Mischievous Girl.

On San Polo, the light brindle dog is chasing his first victory at Ipswich as he has not been able to figure prominently in his four starts so far.

San Polo put together his best run of performances at Grafton – where he has claimed all his six career victories – and Snow is hopeful he can return to that form this week.

“He's just not handling the track at Ipswich well at this stage, I am not sure why,” Snow said.

“He had been running well down at Grafton at a track with one turn.

“I thought it was a hard race he was in on Thursday night, to tell you the truth.”

San Polo contested a heat of the Listed Ipswich Young Guns earlier this month and will jump with the red rug on his back on Thursday.

“He came out good in the heats of the Young Guns and he had every chance there but he wanted to come off on the first corner,” he said.

Another from the Snow kennel - Key West – will go around in the last of ten races from Ipswich on Thursday – another Masters fifth grade event – and the experienced trainer thinks his top form is likely to come in the next few weeks.

“He might be short of a run,” Snow said.

“The other two have been racing while Key West has been out for a couple of weeks.”