By Duane Ranger (courtesy of Redcliffe Paceway)
Lockyer Waters reinsman and Show specialist, Clinton Snedden, has no doubt that racehorses have not only lifted his spirits, but have kept him alive.
Four years ago, the 41-year-old Carole Park-born horseman was told he had just 12 months to live. That devastating news came after his doctor told him he had melanoma lung cancer, and the horrible disease had spread to many parts of his body.
“It was a hell of a blow to take in, but what can you do, but just be positive. I could stay at home all day and mope and hope for visitors to lift me, or just get on with life. Gavin (Wright) was diagnosed with cancer (blood-clotting leukemia) four years ago as well, so we are battling it together. The Wright family have been wonderful.
“I got a holiday job with them when I was 16, and never left. The horses are my life. Standardbreds, the Wrights, and my medication, which I have to take for the rest of my life, have kept me going,” Sneddon said.
“If it wasn’t for horses I wouldn’t have much to live for,” he added.
Sneddon updates his medication every three months, but received the best possible tonic at Redcliffe Paceway on Sunday evening (September 29) when $26-outsider, Aunty Frances easily won race five by an increasing 2.8 metres.
The Mat Wright-trained 6-year-old Artspeak mare provided Sneddon with his 203rd career win – almost four months (June 2) after he nailed his 200th career win behind the Wright-trained Three Cord Riff, also at Redcliffe Paceway.
Sneddon actually drove a double that night. Three races earlier win 199 came via the Wright-trained Jaydes Terror in race seven.
If anyone deserved a personal milestone it’s ‘one tough cookie’ – Sneddon. A year after being diagnosed with cancer, he lost his ring-finger on his left hand. To make matters worse, Sneddon is left-handed.
“I was cutting a tree with a hand-saw, and took a risk which I shouldn’t have. Before I knew it I lost my finger. It’s all good now though, it doesn’t affect my driving at all,” the resilient Sneddon said.
“It didn’t stop him from working though. He was out with the horses the same day. I said ‘what are you doing?’ he replied ‘I’m okay. This is where I want to be. It’s just a finger, I’ve got nine more’,” added a baffled Wright (Gavin).
Gavin and Diane Wright have four kids, one of which is Clint, who the couple have raised since he was in his teens. Sneddon himself is the oldest of two sisters and one brother, and none of them, like his parents, were not interested in harness racing.
“Pony Club was about it. When I left school I started training greyhounds with my Uncle Kenny, but I got sick of that and got into the horses. It was the Wright family that got me hooked, and I’ll be forever grateful to them for that,” Sneddon said.
All-up Sneddon has now driven 203 winners from 3,236 starters, since he took out his drivers’ license in 2000-2001. He has also placed on 505 occasions and netted $731,538 in purses.
His best season came in 2008-2009 when he drove 23 winners. This year he has saluted the judge five times.
“I missed a few drives this year when I went to Perth and visited Frank and Karen Bennett. I had a few drives at Gloucester Park and Pinjarra. I think I ended up with one third, but that was a good experience.”
He said the best horse that he had driven was the 1997 Keystone Gondola 14-win gelding, Tilly Trotter.
“I won five straight behind him, but my biggest win came at Albion Park in March 2014 when I drove Its Three By Two to win the Group Three Jim McNeill Trotters Championship.
“I drove that gelding for Frank Bennett. He was a nice trotter. I’ve been driving since I was 16,” Ipswich State high School-educated Sneddon said.
“I didn’t do much at school. In fact, I think the teachers celebrated when I left,” he added.
The Wright stable currently works a team of 20. They all thought Aunty Frances was way over the odds.
“I think at her peak she could win an MO race in the city. She’s starting to click now, and is on the way back from a virus and is much better than what her form-line suggest. If she had drawn closer to the markers I thought she might have been one of the favourites. She’s a credit to Mat, who has really stood up since Clint and I got sick” Wright (Gavin) said.
Sneddon agreed.
He said Aunty Frances was a “giveaway” pacer, like former stablemates Bye Noble (nine wins) and Padre (eight wins). They were nice horses, and so is Aunty Frances. She is owned by Gavin and Diane, and has now won 12 races (134 starts and $69,807), including four this year.
Sneddon and Aunty Frances drew the awkward nine marble in Sunday’s Darren Ebert NR-Up-To-40 Pace. They were two-back-and-three-out early, and then third-last at the bell, and then last at the 500m.
Sneddon then followed eventual runner-up Rocco Variety and Lola Weidemann into the race, and then loomed up three-wide in the home-straight,
The bay mare then had too much sprint for her eight opponents to win the 1,780-metre mobile in 2:14.8 – with a 2:01.9 mile-rate.
“She might not be the most talented horse that we have got, but she would be one of the more honest. She’s still on the way back. Potentially I think Letsgotothehop (eight wins) is potentially a very good racehorse if he gets to the races,” Sneddon said.
Aunty Frances, Sneddon, and Wright will be looking to make it two straight at ‘The Triangle’ again tomorrow evening (Thursday October 3), when the former lines up in race five at 6.24pm. She has copped the widest front-row six, draw.
Sneddon will also get in behind stablemates, Three Chord Riff, in race six at 6.56pm, and, Nite Irene, in race seven at 7.31pm. Both pacers have drawn nicely at two.
“Winning races is what keeps me and Gavin going. The horses are what we get up for every day and I tell you that winning-feeling is better than what any doctor can give you,” summarised Sneddon.
Footnote: Lockyer Waters is 130km south-west of Redcliffe, and 93km west of Brisbane. It has a population of 538.
