Divorces will head to the Queensland Oaks

The Darley juggernaut rolls into Eagle Farm this weekend after ticking the Doomben carnival off the to-do list in 2011.

Peter Snowden will once again field some great chances throughout June and while it’s not his biggest squad, each of them is a genuine winning threat.

Divorces will head into the Queensland Oaks with plenty to do after being shown up by the kiwi import Scarlett Lady last start in the Roses.

There was a query about the distance going into that race and it wasn’t something dismissed after the race, but Snowden is confident she’ll run out the journey.

“If you ride her quietly you’ll have a better chance of getting the trip,” he said.

“In Brisbane (Doomben) she was a lot closer and wasn’t really in a running line.”

He’s very happy with how she’s come out of that run and thinks she could be a better horse in the Queensland Oaks.

“She looks in great order, work was nice this morning, she certainly hasn’t gone backwards,” he said.

He does acknowledge they’ll need to try something different to beat Scarlett Lady though which stalked Divorces the entire run last start and then blew past her on the turn.

“She doesn’t have to be last but midfield at worst, switch her off and produce her late,” he said.

Also on show in the Sire’s Produce Stakes will be Benfica, which has plenty of pressure as he looks to continue Darley’s clean sweep of two-year-old events.

He’ll be joined by Free Wheeling which has less experience but was extremely impressive in his last run.

“Both colts have done really well since they’ve been here, probably not  much between them really,” he said.

“These are what we thought were our best two coming into the carnival, they’ve just got two more runs to go.”

His other nominations for the Eagle Farm card include tow in the Dane Ripper Stakes over 1400m.

Both Jerezana and Kanzan are due to run and once again they’ll be near the top of the betting board.

“(Jerezana’s) work was sharp this morning, (Kanzan had a) good strong win last two starts now, in good order,” he said.

His Doomben 10,000 star Beaded has also pulled up well after the run and now she’ll look towards what was the main goal of the carnival, the Stradbroke Handicap.

She was given a 1kg penalty after her maiden Group 1 victory which surprised a few people given how narrow the margin was.

“The first thing I thought after she won was that’s good she’ll have the same weight as last year,” he said.

“There’s not much we can do about it, I won’t tell her how much it is and she won’t ask me.”

He says it would be a monster effort to win back to back Group 1’s however her campaign has been targeted for her to peak in two weeks time.

“It’s a lot to ask, win a 10,000 and ask her to improve more but I know in my mind where she’s at,” he said.

“She’s only going to bring the same sort of form to her next start.”