Gold Symphony on winning note at Canberra

Gold Symphony has signalled he is ready to realise the potential he showed earlier in his career after winning the Listed National Sprint at Canberra.

Trained by Peter and Paul Snowden, the four-year-old gelding relished a light weight and solid tempo to extend to a 1-3/4 length victory in Sunday’s $130,000 race over 1400m.

Gold Symphony was a dual Group Three winner in his three-year-old season when trained by Peter Moody but had only won once in nine attempts since being switched to the Snowdens.

“The writing was on the wall for him,” Paul Snowden said.

“He’s performed at a good level. He just needed to win one.”

He said they would look to use his ability in rain-affected going during the Queensland winter carnival.

“It was always in the back of our minds to maybe give him a little break and look towards the north in the winter with him,” Snowden said.

“He’s a very good wet-tracker. He works like he’s on a good three at home when it’s quite wet.”

Dual Group One placegetter Happy Clapper ($4.20) put in they eye-catching effort of the race to run second first-up carrying 6.5kg more than his rivals after being slowly away.

Trainer Pat Webster has a number of feature race targets during the Sydney autumn and Brisbane winter carnivals.

“There’s so much improvement in him,” Webster said.

“He’s set for the Doncaster, the Queen Elizabeth, the Hollindale Cup and the Doomben Cup so we had to start somewhere.”

Goldolphin gelding Handfast jumped the $3.40 favourite but relinquished the lead at the 150m mark and finished third.