From Last to First

Tue 26 May 2026

Winner 69 of 2026: SNAPBACK, trained by John & Thady Gosden and ridden by Robert Havlin. The ‘British EBF Restricted Novice Stakes’ over 1m2f at Leicester.

Our owners have been incredibly patient with our son of Intello, who has been pleasing John and Thady with his homework, but took his time to fully grow into his frame and mature.

The ground was probably on the quick side of what we would have liked for his first outing, but he was in great shape, and the race conditions had a good feel about it.

Slowly away from the gates, Snapback looked green in the early stages of the race, with the undulations not helping our son of Intello to find his rhythm. His experienced jockey kept him up to his work, though, and the pair were slowly making good progress through the field.

Once he got balanced in the final furlong of the 1m2f contest, he really took off in the hands of Rab Havlin and showed a great willingness to stay on powerfully.

His jockey was quoted in the post-race interview as saying that he had trouble pulling him up: “Seemed to hit lots of the undulations and took a while to get going but he showed great willingness late on. Rab [Havlin] said he had a right job pulling him up. He will stay a mile and a half and will hopefully be a very nice, unexposed horse for the second half of his 3yo campaign - Tom Palin, partner in Middleham Park Racing, joint-owners.”

An exciting debut, and as the saying goes, patience was rewarded. Huge well done to his owners.

Watch his full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/results/2026-05-25/leicester/1429

Snapback received a Timeform Rating of 80p after his debut victory (77+): "(€40,000Y: by Intello: third foal: half-brother to 1½m winner Luna

Rock (by U S Navy Flag) and 9.4f winner Neuschwanstein (by Romanised), both in France: dam unraced half-sister to smart winner up to 9f Aim To Please) overcame inexperience to make a winning debut, worth marking up given he came from so far back under slick conditions and he looks a very useful prospect; dwelt, in rear, some headway over 2f out, ran green entering final 1f, stayed on to lead close home; will stay 1½m, and is sure to progress and win more races."

For official photos, please contact Tony Knapton at [email protected] and he will be able to provide you with proofs.