THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - BROWNE, SNOWDEN AND THE BLUE DIAMOND

By Graham Potter | Sunday, February 16, 2014

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

Seventeen months ago Sunshine Coast champion jockey Damian Browne turned down the ride on the Peter Snowden trained Epaulette in the Golden Rose at Rosehill. A young jockey called Tommy Berry ultimately got the ride and the win in the $1 million feature leaving regular stable jockey Kerrin McEvoy (who opted for the second placed Albrecht as the stable choice) and Browne (who elected to ride at Doomben) both rueing their respective decisions.

Few riders turn down any big race opportunity with Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley operation and, while there were some extenuating circumstances in Browne’s decision making process at the time, two important outcomes meant that Golden Rose result remained a ‘miss’ but not a disaster for the gun rider.

In racing there is simply no time to dwell on life’s little hiccups. Indeed it would not be professional to do so, apart from Browne taking some good natured ribbing from his colleagues, things moved on pretty quickly.

Browne learnt from the experience and Snowden held no grudge for being knocked back (winning the race probably helped that emotional stability) leaving the mutual respect between trainer and jockey intact with all options for any joint future success between the two very still much on the table.

Since that Golden Rose Browne has enjoyed some notable successes with the Snowden stable.

Now another $1 million race is firmly in this duo’s sights.

This time Browne did not hesitate when offered the ride on Earthquake in last week’s Blue Diamond Prelude in the absence of the injured Kerrin McEvoy, even though there were no guarantees at the time that McEvoy would not be back in time to ride in the Blue Diamond Stakes.

The record shows that Earthquake, who was only having her second start, overcame some small inexperience issues on the turn, to stretch away once her outright ability kicked in to score by a little under three lengths in the fillies Prelude. She stopped the clock in exactly the same time that the much vaunted Rubick recorded in the colts and geldings version of the Prelude one race later.

Since those races Earthquake and Rubick, who are both unbeaten, have dominated the betting for the Blue Diamond Stakes which will be contested on February 22 and Browne has already been confirmed as the rider of Earthquake in the continued absence of McEvoy.

For Browne that translates into a rare chance to ride a fancied, first choice Snowden trained runner in a $1 million race.

Snowden is not prone to exaggeration so when he confirmed the Blue Diamond ride and referred to Browne as having “a cool nature,” and added, “he is relaxed and composed and is a big-time rider … on the right horse, he is as good as anybody” he was handing down high, hard earned and well deserved praise.

So, in a sense, the Sunshine Coast will have a ‘runner’ to support in the next week’s Blue Diamond Stakes and no doubt all those who gave Browne a ribbing over his Epaulette decision will hoping to shout him home in the big one.

Will Earthquake win and give Browne his fourth Group 1 win for the season?

I guess that’s a million dollar question!

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