‘Versatile’ Snapper Sinclair awaits Breeders’ Cup assignment

Along with Steve Asmussen-trained Midnight Bisou and Mitole, both expected to be Eclipse Award winners and Breeders’ Cup favorites, a less heralded member of the barn shipped out early to Santa Anita Park.

Snapper Sinclair, a last out winner of Kentucky Downs’ Tourist Mile, is also preparing for the championships. In which race will be determined later between the Breeders’ Cup Mile (on turf) and the Dirt Mile (on the main track).

“Probably his better numbers, oddly enough, are on the dirt,” said Jeff Bloom, who campaigns the 4-year-old son of City Zip. “But he’s a versatile horse that’s shown the ability to perform on either surface. He’s out there doing well with the thought process that one of those two spots will be his next race.”

Snapper Sinclair first made a name for himself on the Kentucky Downs turf, where he won the top stakes for 2-year-olds, then went on to be 12th in an especially salty edition of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. He returned at 3 on the dirt, competing in the Lecomte Stakes (G3), Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2) toward a possible Kentucky Derby bid.

Snapper Sinclair came up as short as possible, just missing against Bravazo in a tight runner-up finish in the Risen Star.

“We’re pretty high on him,” Bloom said. “Obviously when he was, I guess you could say, somewhat on the Derby trail, he showed he could handle good horses. We were less than a whisker away from winning that race at the Fair Grounds.

“Hopefully he continues to move forward.”

Since then, Snapper Sinclair has run in a mix of allowance races and minor stakes events. Only twice in 11 starts has he finished worse than fourth — Bloom calls is a “blip” in otherwise consistent form — and he’ll be going third off the layoff in the Breeders’ Cup.

The first race, a third in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes (G3), resulted in a third by 1 1/4 lengths behind Silver Dust and Kukulkan, the well-known Mexican champion.

“We came out of there switching to turf at Kentucky Downs thinking he should have a huge race in him,” Bloom said.

And connections were right, with Snapper Sinclair rallying from nine lengths out of the Tourist Mile with only a quarter mile to run, storming down the center of the turf course to get up late.

“He shouldn’t have really won that race at Kentucky Downs,” Bloom said. “He had a horrible trip — clipped heels, ended up shuffled to last and made a huge, big run. He had been doing so well.”

How well Snapper Sinclair can run at what figures to be a nice price on Nov. 2 will continue the career of a former $180,000 purchase who has won five of 18 starts with earnings eclipsing $1 million.