Sydney youngster Hot Snitzel emerged as a serious winter carnival threat after leaving his opposition in his wake with a demoralising win in the Listed Ken Russell Classic.The Gerald Ryan-trained Hot Snitzel had to be stoked up early by Nash Rawiller before settling in behind the pace and then exploding in the straight for a 6-1/2 len win over Double Impact in Saturday's 1200-metre feature.Magnum Forty Four was a further 1-1/4 lengths away third.Retired businessman Jim Kennedy, who was once the

Sydney youngster Hot Snitzel emerged as a serious winter carnival threat after leaving his opposition in his wake with a demoralising win in the Listed Ken Russell Classic.

The Gerald Ryan-trained Hot Snitzel had to be stoked up early by Nash Rawiller before settling in behind the pace and then exploding in the straight for a 6-1/2 len win over Double Impact in Saturday's 1200-metre feature.

Magnum Forty Four was a further 1-1/4 lengths away third.

Retired businessman Jim Kennedy, who was once the doyen of the Queensland tourism industry, is a member of Triple Crown Syndications which bought into the ownership of Hot Snitzel.

"We've got six tenths of him," Kennedy said.

Kennedy was a great friend of the late Ken Russell who was killed in a Sydney fall in 1993 and was honoured to win the race named after him.

"Ken and I were good mates and he won a Golden Nugget Stakes on Christopher at the Gold Coast for me and then rode the horse in the Golden Slipper," Kennedy said.

Christopher was one of Queensland's star two-year-olds when he claimed the Listed Golden Nugget at the Gold Coast in 1986 but couldn't repeat the win when 11th to Bounding Away in the Group One Golden Slipper at Rosehill the same year.

Kennedy now has his sights trained on the major juveniles races during the winter, the Group Two Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) and Group One TJ Smith (1600m) at Eagle Farm in June.

"He'll go into the (Group Two) Champagne Classic at Doomben in two weeks then the Sires and TJ," Kennedy said.

Rawiller was relieved more than anything to guide Hot Snitzel to his second win from six starts.

"He's not one of my favourite horses but he's blessed with ability," declared Rawiller.

"He's still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

"All he wanted to do after we jumped was pull up and I had to stoke him up.

"But once he got going he had the race under control by the home turn."