‘It’s the best Slipper we’ve seen in quite a while’

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The wait is over as Australia’s leading youngsters clash in Rosehill’s two-year-old feature 

Australia’s racing and breeding world is on the edge of its seat. The most eagerly anticipated, engrossing, quality-packed, hold-your-breath Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) in years is upon us.

Since September 30, a rare collection of two-year-olds, a body of work testament to the nation’s breeders, has been manoeuvring towards the world’s richest two-year-old race, the 16-runner explosion over 1200 metres of Rosehill in which potential fortunes are made real, or made to disappear.

“It’s the best Slipper we’ve seen in quite a while,” said veteran trainer and two-time winner Peter Snowden. “Looking at the horses that have run in the lead-ups, the times they’ve run and the way they’ve run them, this is one of the strongest Slipper fields I’ve ever seen.”

Espionage (Zoustar) won the Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) on September 30, becoming Slipper favourite as is the norm, and he hasn’t even found a spot in the field, the James Harron colt’s $204,200 prize–money only enough to make him sole emergency.

He’s part of the armada who’ve been tacking towards the Slipper these past six months, marshalled by Gai Waterhouse – the record seven-time winner of this race – and co-trainer Adrian Bott.

And with so much buzz around Tulloch Lodge’s phenomenal season for juveniles – 15 individual winners of 21 races, eight in black type – six and maybe seven of them will finally take a shot at their $5 million Group 1 grail this afternoon.

Their unbeaten colt Storm Boy (Justify) (pictured below) has been the raging favourite since debuting in early December, and will strive to give jet-setting jockey Ryan Moore his second straight Slipper, after Shinzo’s (Snitzel) triumph last year. Victory will send Storm Boy’s value soaring towards the $60 million potential figure involved in his recent buy-out by Coolmore.

At $2.10 on Wednesday after drawing barrier two, he shaped as the shortest Slipper starter since Alinghi (Encosta De Lago) ran third at $1.70 in 2004. But having eased to $2.50 by last night, he might merely be the shortest since Vancouver (Medaglia D’Oro) won Waterhouse’s sixth at $2.50 in 2015.

Part of his drift followed strong backing for stablemate Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), who was $10 on Wednesday morning and $6 last night. Tulloch Lodge also has Straight Charge (Written By, $13), Fully Lit (Hellbent, $26), Prost (Snitzel, $34) and Shangri La Express (Alabama Express, $51).

Dominating the two-year-old scene all season only to fail at the grand final might have a touch of the Devon Lochs about it, yet there are a host of rivals with undeniable chances to scupper the Waterhouse-Bott squadron.

The $1.5m colt Switzerland (Snitzel), Storm Boy’s Coolmore ownership ‘team-mate’ looking to bring Chris Waller his second straight Slipper in their navy blue after Shinzo, is also unbeaten, from three starts. With gate seven for James McDonald, he has been solid all week at around $4.80 second favourite.

Harron’s $1.6m colt Bodyguard (I Am Invincible) – scratched by vets as one of the favourites for the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), but working back to a peak when fourth in Switzerland’s Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) – was at $34 last night.

At that quote, he was one of about a dozen ‘forgotten horses’ in the Slipper, along with Dublin Down (Exceedance, $26), Traffic Warden (Street Boss, $34), Manaal (Tassort, $26), and Holmes A Court (Capitalist, $81).

Those last four are last-start Group winners, showing again the depth of this field.

But there’s one more who won last time out, and in the two before that, who’s very much under the radar as she sets out to spoil the stallion-making party.

Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) drew badly in the Blue Diamond Preview (F) (Gr 3, 1000m) and won it, drew badly in the Blue Diamond Prelude (F) (Gr 2, 1100m) and won it, and drew badly in the Blue Diamond, and became only the second filly to complete the treble, and the first since 1987.

Today, she’ll have her first clockwise run when aiming to become just the sixth horse to win the Blue Diamond-Slipper double. Her trainer Clinton McDonald is related to two of the five trainers to have celebrated the feat – his father Ross, with Courtza (Pompeii Court) in 1989, and maternal grandfather Bon Hoysted, who prepared the great Manikato (Manihi) in 1978.

And just like the Blue Diamond, when she jumped from gate ten for Jamie Kah, she’s lengthy in the betting at $16, partly because she maps badly from the outside gate. But McDonald – who with Kah has “come up with a plan” which will be revealed when the gates open – thinks his tough filly, who’s put Leneva Park’s unheralded British import Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit) on a far better map, has a very strong chance.

“I think she’s a bit of the forgotten horse because of the barrier, but I’m still very confident with her,” McDonald told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She’s a high–class filly, and she’s improved since the Blue Diamond. She’s muscled up, she looks magnificent in the skin, she’s fourth-up from a spell.”

In the past 20 editions, barrier one has been the most successful with six winners, including the past two. The inside appeared sub-optimal at Rosehill last Saturday, however, possibly also contributing to Storm Boy’s easing.

But sharing second-best in those two decades have been barriers 14 and 16, with two wins apiece. That’s part of the reason boosting the confidence of McDonald, who doesn’t mind a bet, and loved the $16 also on offer for his filly in the Blue Diamond.

“I hear people saying Lady Of Camelot’s (pictured below) the best filly going around, and I had to laugh. We beat her into second in the Blue Diamond, and we covered ground and beat the pattern of the track where they weren’t making ground outside,” he said.

McDonald, stabling Hayasugi at Ciaron Maher’s Bong Bong property to recreate the rural feel of his Cranbourne home, also added to doubts growing around Storm Boy in recent days, mostly for the fact he’s beaten only two today’s rivals – Prost and Traffic Warden – in his four starts.

“Storm Boy won the Skyline Stakes last start and Prost was taking ground off him at the end,” McDonald said of that 1.4 length margin.

“Storm Boy did win the Magic Millions Classic, and rated well that day, and you have to respect that. But the track favoured on-speed horses, and the placegetters – Highness and Spywire – haven’t really been heard of since.

“Look, it’s a very even field, and Storm Boy deserves respect, but I wouldn’t be taking even-money about him. He and Switzerland are the obvious two, Lady Of Camelot’s a great chance, Bodyguard’s a great chance, and you’ve got to respect Manaal.

“But my filly hasn’t missed a beat, and her work’s been great. I’m looking forward to the race. Hopefully some family history will repeat.”

Waterhouse, knowing what it takes to win a Slipper or seven, countered the doubts around Storm Boy by saying Prost and Traffic Warden “aren’t bad horses to beat”.

She stuck with the favourite as the pick of her runners, but said each had an undeniable chance.

“Storm Boy’s in top order and should run well,” she said of the colt who’ll try to give Justify (Scat Daddy) his first southern hemisphere Group 1 winner, and his seventh individual elite-level winner from just two global crops.

“Lady Of Camelot’s trial win [on March 11] was enormous and she’s a great chance. Shangri La Express and Straight Charge have done nothing wrong, and Fully Lit keeps performing,” she told ANZ Bloodstock News, admitting the weight of expectation had made this season’s run to the Slipper possibly different to others.

“After so much build up with all these horses for so long, you do get a bit nervous now it’s finally here. It’s just great that it’s finally here. Plus, it’s one of the best Slipper fields I can remember.”

Bodyguard has a tricky gate to contend with, as his jockey Mark Zahra attempts to add a Slipper to his bulging modern majors bag.

Unlike McDonald, co-trainer Snowden – who with son Paul will also saddle Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Holmes A Court under English jockey Tom Marquand – knows he can only hope, rather than plan, for a favourable spot in running.

“In Slippers, you don’t pre-empt where you’re going to be,” Snowden said. “You end up where you end up. They’re never easy, and you only get one chance to get a spot. Gate ten looks OK though. There’s a lot of speed there. It’s better than 16 at least.”

Snowden said Bodyguard had “come on enormously” after conspicuously making ground in the straight in the Todman, and was back at his peak, as he had been before cruel fate intervened on Blue Diamond eve.

“He peaked on his run at the 50–metre mark in the Todman, which you’d expect because he’d missed the Blue Diamond and a bit of work. He’ll take a fair bit of improvement from that run,” said Snowden, adding Bodyguard probably preferred clockwise racing despite both his wins coming in Melbourne, since “he’s been trained in Sydney most of his life”.

More ‘forgotten’ contenders come in the pair who’ll attempt to better Tony McEvoy’s strong but excruciating second and third placings – with Oohood (I Am Invincible) and Sunlight (Zoustar) behind Estijaab (Snitzel) – the last time he had two runners, in 2018.

Dublin Down, forced by minor throat surgery to attempt the Blue Diamond first-up, displayed the improvement drawn from that hampered 12th-placed run by leading throughout in last Saturday’s Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m).

And stablemate Rue De Royale (Per Incanto, $126) showed he was back on track with a 1.8 length second in Traffic Warden’s VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), after a tenth from the outside gate in the Blue Diamond that McEvoy regrets.

“Dublin Down is in great order. Last week’s run was what he needed,” McEvoy said of the colt, who has gate 13 for Hugh Bowman. “He’s really brightened up, and he’s been up and about all week, and very stimulated. It was an impossible task we had to set him, running in the Blue Diamond first-up, but it was a very good run. He couldn’t get room when he needed to.

“I was annoyed at myself for running Rue De Royale from gate 16 that day. We really should’ve scratched. But then his second in the Sires’ was unlucky – we thought he should have won – and he’s got form around a few in the Slipper.”

And as for the market’s choice of Storm Boy’s most dangerous rival, Waller reports the development in Switzerland has been stark as he’s set out to replicate Shinzo’s one-prep Slipper triumph.

“He went like a rocket in trackwork on Tuesday. He’s launching,” Waller said on social media. “He just keeps improving, he’s strengthening up into a nice, masculine colt now. He’s just coming of age, and waking up with each run. I can’t fault his prep. He’s ready to go.”

Even a man with as much big–time experience as Waller gave an insight into the pressures around a race which could ‘make’ a stallion worth dozens of millions. Asked if he was excited on race eve, he said “terrified” would fit better.

“You’ve got to take their temperatures every morning at 4 o’clock, make sure they’re eating, trotting up sound, make sure they’re happy, tuck ‘em into bed at night and make sure they have a good night’s sleep,” he said. “There’s not many sleeps to go. We’re just about there.”