THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - PETER SNOWDEN'S DECISION IS PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 24, 2013

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

Peter Snowden’s move to end his highly successful relationship with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Darley operation caught most people by surprise.

It is the kind of job that few trainers are offered and even less can cope with given the sheer scope of the responsibility involved, from managing hundreds of mostly royally bred thoroughbreds to communicating with Sheikh Mohammed and his racing manager, to delegating to staff, to fulfilling important media engagements.

Quite simply it is a huge undertaking.

Even with the best employer, best horses and best staff in the world, it is an intense juggling act … and anything that is intense contains a stress element which should not be underplayed.

Ever since Snowden signed up for the job in May 2008 he has proved himself worthy of that challenge.

Last season Snowden was Australia’s most successful trainer saddling 233 winners nationwide from 1307 runners which gave him a healthy strike-rate of 17.83%.

Sure, he had the numbers and the ‘cattle’ but he certainly has kept produced the goods.

And, again to emphasise the size of the Darley operation, Snowden’s 1307 runners represented some 45% greater involvement than Gai Waterhouse’s 726 runners … and to put it in a local contest, Snowden’s starters made Queensland’s biggest trainer Robert Heathcote’s number of 685 pale by comparison.

The point being that while the partnership has accrued no less than twenty-eight Group 1 wins (including a clean sweep of all the two-year-old Group 1 features in the 2010/11 season) an operation of this size does not maintain such lofty heights without the input of a high level of knowledge, special attention to detail and a lot of hard work … followed by more hard work.

In that context it was logical that there would come a time Snowden took a step back to review his situation.

On the past achievement front Snowden would rightfully be comfortable he has proved himself at the highest level, season after season. You would also assume Snowden is financially secure (his runners last season alone earned in excess of $15 million) so any ‘new’ decision could be made from a position of strength.

So, after five-and-a-half years with Darley, the question had to be whether Snowden was happy with more of the same or if he needed a new challenge.

With his Darley stable foreman, son Paul, ready to step up to the mark it probably wasn’t that traumatic a decision.

A family training partnership of Peter and Paul Snowden must have had a nice ring to it for some time and, when taken in this context, Snowden’s decision to leave Darley at the conclusion of the 2014 Autumn Carnival to set up a family business, which he can help build and hand over to the next generation, as opposed to being an employee has less shock value than the first tremor suggested.
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For Peter and Paul Snowden, come next winter, it will be like opening up a corner café instead of managing a huge mall.

That will be a story for another time but the fact remains that a hugely important decision has been made which will ultimately alter the profile of Australian racing as we know it today.

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