Lightly-raced talent Professor Snitch took a huge step towards emulating her superstar sire Sennachie with one of the standout performances in Saturday night’s heats of the Group 1 KCR Pet Transport Maturity Classic (525m) at The Meadows.

Professor Snitch, trained by Steve White at Buln Buln East, passed the biggest test of her brief career with flying colours when winning heat two of the age-restricted feature in a flying 29.752sec.

The former Queenslander was shaded by less than half a length for qualifying honours in the last of the eight ‘must win’ heats when Zara Marnie, trained by Des Douch, clocked 29.749sec.

Drawn in box eight in one of the deepest run-offs, Professor Snitch ($3.50) demonstrated great acceleration and determination to cross to the lead rounding the first turn as she eliminated South Australian superstar Victa Damian ($2.10F) with a 2.5 length victory.

WATCH: “What a run!” PROFESSOR SNITCH (B8) will be striving to follow in her sire Sennachie’s footsteps by winning the G1 Maturity Classic Final next Saturday night after a sizzling 29.75sec heat victory.

MATURITY CLASSIC
HEAT WINNERS
(Fastest to slowest)

• 29.749sec Zara Marnie
• 29.752sec Professor Snitch
• 29.81sec Make No Promise
• 29.81sec New Wave Whine
• 29.84sec Crackerjack Boom
• 29.85sec Tinker Norm
• 29.95sec Baby Jaycee
• 30.01sec Launch Code

It was her seventh win from ten starts and second from three appearances at The Meadows, comfortably eclipsing her previous winning time of 30.16sec.

Professor Snitch started her career in Queensland, winning two of her first three starts, before being transferred to Steve White, who guided Sennachie to a blistering 29.53sec victory in the 2019 Maturity Final, one of three G1 titles.

Sennachie is a son of champion 2015 Maturity hero Fernando Bale, which sired three heat winners.

Other highlights from the Maturity heats included:

• The prodigiously talented Zara Marnie saved the best until last, taking full advantage of box one to lead all-the-way in the final heat, blousing Professor Snitch for Best Of Night figures as the daughter of high-flying sire Bernardo claimed her eighth victory from 18 starts.
• Baby Jaycee qualified for her sixth G1 event with a 29.95sec success. Trained by Bob Douglas, Baby Jaycee, another daughter of Bernardo, started $1.50 in heat five and secured her 27^th career victory and eighth from her last nine starts. With 45 starts, she’s the most experienced finalist and will be chasing her second G1 trophy, having won Sandown’s Sapphire Crown in May.
• Baby Jaycee was bred by Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Paul Bartolo, who’ll have a finalist of his own in third quickest qualifier Make No Promise, which took out the opening heat in 29.81sec, the son of Fernando Bale’s 12^th win from 22 starts.
• Launch Code, also a son of Fernando Bale, justified his prominent position in ‘All In’ betting with a determined 30.01sec performance. It was Launch Code’s third straight victory since joining the astute Jamie and Brooke Ennis kennel. His victory provided consolation for ‘Team Ennis’ after the defeat of 2022 Maturity finalist Amron Boy at $1.10 in the FFA sprint.

Two heats of the G3 Fireball (730m) for the stayers were also held, with 2022 Sandown Cup heroine Untapped, trained by Dustin Drew, and Matt Clark’s last start G2 McKenna Memorial winner Sunnyside Zeus both leading throughout in 42.63sec and 42.93sec respectively.

The Maturity and Fireball finals will take place at
The Meadows on Saturday night 22 July.