Vlad Duric gets Xidaki home in Group 3 Winx Guineas for Peter and Paul Snowden at Sunshine Coast

Vlad Duric added another winter carnival stakes victory in the Winx Guineas since his return from Singapore, and winning for the Snowden stable made it more satisfying.

Vlad Duric urges Xidaki home in the Group 3 Winx Guineas at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

Popular owner Angelo “Lucky” Pippos has another rising star on his hands after Xidaki franked the high opinion of his trainer Peter Snowden and delivered another stakes win for comeback jockey Vlad Duric at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.

The famous purple and white colours have been seen on horse such as Gunsynd and The Candy Man, but it was Xidaki that came through on Sunday in the Group 3 Winx Guineas.

Singapore sensation Duric has enjoyed a strong association with Snowden, who is in the last few weeks of a training partnership with his son Paul, and said it was good to go out with a win in the $300,000 feature, holding off a challenge from Danny O’Brien’s Miss Aria.

Xidaki takes out the Winx Guineas in a thrilling finish for @SnowdenRacing1. pic.twitter.com/uluqey0KeY

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 14, 2024

“They are bloody rippers, both Pete and Pauly,” Duric declared post-race.

“I go way back with them.

“When I came back from Singapore the first time, I rode for four years for them, then went back to Singapore.

“They are great people, the Snowdens, they gave me plenty of good winners and a few stakes winners too.”

Peter Snowden is renowned for his attention to detail and admits he was starting to second guess himself over Xidaki’s preparation, which has had an on again and off again pattern.

Those concerns came out again when things went against the horse mid-race.

“I was worried, it wasn’t the instructions I gave out before the race, but he rounded them up nicely,” Snowden said.

“He is such a genuine racehorse, he is such a giver, such a trier and those horses can do things that most can’t.

“I have been doubting myself all week, the preparation I gave him, I thought it was going to be too hard a job.

“It is a tremendous effort by the team to get him back going and pick him back up.”

Vlad Duric was pleased to win the Winx Guineas for trainers Peter and Paul Snowden. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

It marks Duric’s sixth stakes win of the winter, making him one of the most successful riders of the carnival and capped off a successful move to Queensland.

The Caulfield Cup-winning Duric has declared his intentions of winning another Australian major before he calls it quits and said it was a rough house affair aboard Xidaki on Sunday.

“He didn’t have any favours early from a wide draw, so I took my medicine and went right back on him and gee he travelled very keenly,” he said.

“When I peeled out, I tried to wait as long as I could, but to his credit, he won the race.

“When he was challenged, he wouldn’t let that horse past him.”

Originally published as Vlad Duric gets Xidaki home in Group 3 Winx Guineas for Peter and Paul Snowden at Sunshine Coast