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Champion trainer Peter Snowden knows better than most what it takes to be TAB Everest material and is giving classy four-year-old Wild Ruler the chance to catch the eye of a slot holder at Randwick on Saturday.
There's an opening or two in the top echelon of sprinters with several high profile retirements over the last couple of years, including the Snowdens' dual Everest winner Redzel, and Wild Ruler has long told the stable he has the potential.
Wild Ruler could have been in last year's TAB Everest, on the back of a dominant Roman Consul Stakes win, but Snowden felt it was too soon.
"I think it all comes down to who puts their hand up the most in the next month,''Peter Snowden said.
"It's a starting point for us but if he's going well enough he'll pick himself.
"He definitely got an offer last year but we didn't think he was ready for it being a three-year-old. If you're in an Everest you want to be a competitor, not just an also ran.
"There are some big races worth plenty of money coming up so if he doesn't make the first tier we will certainly be there to grab the second."
If Wild Ruler is to announce himself as a contender what better way to do it than by taking on Nature Strip, one of the favourites for the $15m race, in the Group 3 $160,000 TAB Concorde Stakes (1000m).
It's a race the Snowdens know well as Redzel started each of his three Everest campaigns (2017-19) with a win in the race.
The entire boasts an unbeaten record in four starts at Randwick and his worst result when resuming is a 0.2 length second at just his second race start.
Wild Ruler has had one barrier trial, for a win at Hawkesbury last month, and Snowden said he will be there to be very competitive over the 1000m.
"Most good horses don't have to be 110 per cent wound up,'' he said.
"I know with Redzel he'd be 85 per cent and would run 56 for 1000m not fully fit. The thing about Wild Ruler is good tracks. That's his forte, he's got to have good ground and he runs his best races."
There's no way to get around the fact that Nature Strip is the horse to beat in the Concorde and Snowden said the make up of the race should allow his horse the opportunity to finish strongly.
Wild Ruler is a $51 chance in TAB's all-in Everest market but considered the main danger to Nature Strip first-up as the $5 second elect on Friday.
"I'm not worried about (Nature Strip), I'm just worried about our horse,'' Snowden said.
"We want the horse to run well. There's good speed in the race and at least one horse there to keep him honest, so hopefully we're sitting third or fourth and we'll have a good charge at him late.
"If we pick him up well and good but if not I'm sure he will run well."
Talented filly Najmaty returns to Sydney after a luckless first-up run in Melbourne to take her place in the Group 2 $200,000 Darley Furious Stakes (1200m).
She found herself at the back of the field in the Group 3 Quezette Stakes (1100m) and rocketed home into fourth, beaten under two lengths, in a run Snowden described as a "hard watch".
"The only thing I took out of it was she ran well, she had no luck, but the fact she was so good late for us going forward it was good to see,'' he said.
Najmaty, $5 with TAB, has drawn in the outer half of the Furious field and Snowden hopes that will afford her the chance to wind up unimpeded.
"She has a good turn of foot ridden quiet, we'll be three or four pairs back and look to unleash late,'' he said.
The father and son partnership's other Randwick runners are handy three-year-old Construct in the Cleanaway Handicap (1300m) and last start track record breaker King Of Sparta in the ACY Securities Handicap (1200m).
The former, an eye-catching third in the Group 3 Up & Coming Stakes at his last start, is on trial for a return to stakes company while Snowden is looking for a bit of luck with the latter having drawn awkwardly.
