Gargan confident Snowyte is ready for stakes competition again
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Danny Gargan believes Snowyte was always cut out to be a stakes horse. He hopes her allowance victory last month at Gulfstream Park was the first step toward accomplishing that goal.
On March 29, Snowyte will return to stakes company for the first time since she finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in 2024 when she runs in the $175,000 Top Flight Stakes at Aqueduct.
Snowyte came off a 106-day layoff to win a first-level allowance race by 11 1/4 lengths Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park. While she did earn a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure, the race may look better on paper than it did on track. The race scratched down to a five-horse field. Heavenly Sunset, the third-choice in the race, stumbled leaving the starting gate and unseated her rider. Clairita, the favorite, also stumbled and was out of position while Snowyte galloped along loose on the lead.
Still, Gargan said he was confident going into that race Snowyte would run well and believes going longer and staying two turns is what will bring out her best. The Top Flight is run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns. Snowyte’s maiden win came in a two-turn, one-mile race at Monmouth in August 2025.
“If you look at her two-turn races they’re all good except the Breeders’ Cup,” Gargan said. “Longer the better.”
Snowyte, a $250,000 yearling purchase, was originally campaigned by Don Alberto Corp., Pine Racing, Belmar Racing and Breeding, and Randy Hill. At the Fasig-Tipton Mixed sale last November, Don Alberto Corp. bought the other partners out at the sale, paying $750,000 to purchase Snowyte.
“We think she’s going to win stakes races and with her pedigree, that would make her more valuable,” Gargan said. “She’s a big, beautiful horse and we think she’s going the right way right now.”
Among the possibles for the Top Flight are Alpine Princess, Bernietakescharge, Low Country Magic, Ourdaydreaminggirl, and Scalable.
Gargan will also be well represented in the Haynesfield Stakes on the same card. Gargan plans to run National Identity, a winner of four straight races, and Russian Realm, in the one-mile race for New York-breds.
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