Snowden Racing sprinter Ranges has given his sire Shooting To Win a Stakes-winning welcome to Oakland Park Stud.

Ranges landed the LR Ramornie Hcp (1200m) in Grafton on Wednesday to improve his record to 8 wins in 35 starts for over $555,000 in prizemoney.  Starting a $6.50 equal-favourite, he raced past pacemaker Greyworm to score by three-quarters of a length under Tom Sherry.

Oakland Park announced it had purchased Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor) from Darley last Monday, July 4.  Owners Neville and Susan Duncan will introduce him to WA broodmare owners for a $9,900 (inc GST) service fee.

Ranges is one of 7 black-type winners by Shooting To Win and he has made enormous improvement this season since winning a Benchmark 82 event at Kembla Grange last November.  Trainers Peter and Paul Snowden have now won the Ramornie five times following Pinwheel (2010), Jerezana (2011), Calanda (2017) and Signore Fox (2020).

“He’s changed completely since we put the visor on,” Peter Snowden said.  “Blinkers were too much, he pulled too hard.  When we fitted winkers, he laughed at us.

“The visor surges him on.  You can see it in his racing style.  He gets his head right out which shows he’s trying.  And when he sees them coming he sticks it out further.  It’s just the perfect tool to get the best out of him.”

Ranges (5g Shooting To Win – I Believe by Octagonal) was sold as a yearling by Baramul Stud to Triple Crown Syndications for $140,000 at the 2018 Gold Coast Magic Millions.  He’s a half-brother Rain Affair (Commands), a multiple Group 2-winning sprinter in Sydney for the late Don Storey.

Shooting To Win is a brother to burgeoning Newgate Farm stallion Deep Field and Duncan admitted it wasn’t really a difficult decision to add him to the Oakland Park roster.  “He’s a Danehill-free stallion who’s doing a pretty damn good job,” Duncan told ANZ Bloodstock News last week.  “We were looking for that outcross and he’s done particularly well with his stock in WA.

“We also have a long-standing relationship with Darley and we will be looking at around the 60 to 90 mark as a really good book for him this year.”