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Brother to star filly Estijaab makes winning debut at Rosehill.
Team Hawkes-trained Remarque (Snitzel) - who is a brother to 2018 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Estijaab - looks to have inherited some of his famous sister's talent as he made a winning debut at Rosehill on Saturday and he will now look to emulate his sister in the Golden Slipper in March.
Racing in the famous yellow and black silks of Arrowfield Stud, who remained in the ownership of Remarque with and Katsumi Yoshida, the colt scooted clear to beat Zethus (Exceed And Excel) by two lengths, while Sing A Love Song (Your Song) was a further length and three-quarters further away in third.
Remarque came into Saturday's race having won two Rosehill trials.
"Trials are one thing, but you've got to come out and do it on race day," Michael Hawkes said.
"You can take a lot away from that run, he had the bad barrier and had a lot go against him.
"The part I loved the most was when Tommy [Berry] brought him back and travelled well underneath him. They're signs of good horses.
"She had natural gate speed, he has natural gate speed.
"He's heading towards the Slipper; we are not going to deny that.
"Two-year-olds don't usually do that, good two-year-olds do and he's a good two-year-old."
The colt is out of Response (Charge Forward), who landed the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) in 2010, and her three winners are headed by the aforementioned Estijaab, who was also trained by Team Hawkes, and stakes-placed Alter Call (Fastnet Rock).
Response, who was bought for $1.5 million by Katsumi Yoshida at the 2015 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, herself is a half-sister to the dam of Group 2 winner Returntosender (Elusive City).
In the last three breeding seasons Response has been exclusively been mated to Snitzel, producing a filly by the stallion in 2019 and a colt in 2020.
A total of 44 yearlings by Snitzel have sold on the Gold Coast this week for a total of $20,180,000 and average of $458,636 including the sale topping colt out of Bonny O'Reilly (O'Reilly) who was bought by Tom Magnier for $1.9 million on Tuesday.
