Bumbled start cannot stop comeback speedster Bel Sprinter

HE might have missed the start by two lengths but it wasn't enough to prevent Bel Sprinter from romping away with The Galaxy at Rosehill.

COREY Brown, rider of runner-up Snitzerland, is still trying to work out what happened.

Snitzerland looked home in the Group 1 $350,000 The Galaxy (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens yesterday until Bel Sprinter's amazing last-to-first effort swept it to an extraordinary win.

"My filly was travelling, we cruised into the straight," Brown said.

"I hadn't let go of her until about the 250m and she accelerated really well.

"Then that horse (Bel Sprinter) came from nowhere.

"He went straight past me like he had just joined it.

"I still can't work out how we lost that race."

Bel Sprinter was slow out of the gates and came out three lengths behind the field, and in a race like The Galaxy, conceding such a start to a top-class field of sprinters over 1100m, the odds were against him.

Bel Sprinter's rider, Kerrin McEvoy, didn't panic early by bustling his mount to make up the leeway.

Instead, he rode patiently and waited for his opportunity to get to the outside at the top of the straight.

"It was an unreal win," McEvoy enthused. "He didn't enjoy standing in the barriers for so long and he missed the start.

"The first 100m I was cursing, but they went so quick that at the 600m I thought I just had to get him to the outside and unleash him and that is what he did.

"He just went bang."

Bel Sprinter ($10) finished so quickly he put 3 1/4 lengths on Snitzerland ($3.70 favourite) with Decision Time ($17) just over a length away in third.

It was an emotional moment for trainer Jason Warren as he celebrated his first Group 1 winner.

"I've been training for 10 years and to win my first Group 1, particularly with this horse, is just a great feeling, I can hardly speak," Warren said.

"Bel Sprinter has had his issues and he's coming back from a wind operation and I've got to give special credit to my vets.

"I am thrilled, we've put a lot of work into this horse and it has been very frustrating at times."

Bel Sprinter is by Black Caviar's sire, Bel Esprit, and the two sprinters are now likely to clash in the Group 1 $1 million T.J Smith Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on April 13.