SNIPPS - SLIPPER - FLASHBACK

Welcome to Golden Slipper Day.

The Slipper is one of my favorite races for its importance to the breeding industry. 

Many years ago I entered a competition to win tickets to the Golden Slipper run through my favourite form guide growing up The Sportsman. This racing publication has survived the test of time but no longer essential reading in the digital age. It was back before the internet and information was at a premium and The Sportsman was about the only source of my thirst for detailed form. The challenge now is there is almost too much accessible information. As a punter you are bombarded and can dissect a race from an angle with the information at your fingertips from the web, inbox subscriptions (SnippsTips guilty of it right here - but please read on), podcasts, social media to the now dedicated racing channels. I think this may explain why a lot of the expert tipsters are quite young in the media these days because all they need to know is how to decimate all this information in this the digital racing age combined with a passion for racing.
 

Anyway, back on the Sportsman competition all those years ago that I mailed off – yes I licked a stamp and mailed it off would you believe which perhaps may be my excuse for not winning! Just maybe my entry never made it through the snail mail. Anyway as I was saying the crux of the Sportsman competition was you had to say in 20 words or less why the Slipper is such an important race on the Australian turf calendar. I thought easy I can win this. As fate would have it I didn’t win  but I can remember reading the winner’s entry the next week and for some reason it stuck in my mind probably because it was such a damn good entry. The winner has this to say about why the Golden Slipper is such an important race….. because

“It guarantees the best of a year and promises the best of a generation.”
 
Wow! How true. Its sums up what my baffling answer was trying to say. I seem to remember my entry rhyming and I can only cringe at thought of what garbage I wrote as a 15 year old. But thinking about the words of the winner it is so true that only the best horses of any year make it to the Slipper. Maybe the best horse from the two year old crop may not necessarily salute in the Slipper but the best sprinting horses from a year usually always find their place in the Slipper. It is a stallion making race but I would go further to say it is a breed shaping race because we can’t forget the influence the Golden Slipper fillies have always had for generations to come. I think what the Slipper proves is that precocity and speed are highly genetic traits in the breed transmuted from one generation to the next. 

A look back at the big winners and you can certainly see a strong case for why the Slipper throws up  the best of a generation.  

The Golden Slipper was first run in 1957 and the inaugural winner was Todman by the imported UK stallion Star Kingdom. Todman would go on to shape the breed and the Golden Slipper for years to come. Rightly so Todman has the major slipper lead up race named after him the Todman Stakes which has produced more Slipper winners than any other race. Todman sired his own Slipper winners, Eskimo Prince (1963) and Sweet Embrace (1967). Sweet Embrace would only breed 6 foals one of which was by Luskin Star named Sudden Impulse. This mare would breed 3 stakes winners including Group 1 winner Strategic and a successful sire. Sudden Impulse and Sweet Embrace would appear back in the Golden Slipper winner’s frame in 2002 with Calway Girl a granddaughter of Sudden Impulse via Strategic’s half-brother Clang.

1969 -  Vain wins the Slipper– Carried in the maternal family of Sebonack today. The great Black Caviar carries a double cross of Vain. Vain would sire back to back Slipper winners in 1983 and 1984 with Sir Dapper and Inspired.

In 1977 Luskin Star – the Colt from the Coalfields trained by Max Lees in Newcastle bolts in and takes the two year old triple crown Slipper- Sires -Champagne. He’d go on to sire 30 stakes winners 3 at Group 1 including 3 exception fillies Midnight Fever, Startling Lass and Bold Promise. The latter the 3rd dam of Slipper winner and top young sire Capitalist (2016). Capitalist – Sire of Sebonack in today’s race.

1982 Marscay a grandson of Todman’s sire Star Kingdom wins the Slipper. In 1990 his daughter Bint Marscay wins the slipper putting Marscay in the illustrious company of Todman and Vain to both win and sire a Slipper winner.  Marscay became a hugely successful sires with  66 stakes winners – 12 at Group 1 level. Along with Bint Marscay he was the sire of  Comely Girl 2nd in 1985 Slipper and the winner of the Sires along with  Excelerator an Epsom Winner and  placed in 2001 Slipper.

In 1985 – the gorgeous chestnut with 2 white socks on his hind legs, Rory’s Jester, takes the Slipper. His influence at stud is immense with 73 stakes winners. 4 at Group 1 level. His best daughter was Isca winner of the  Lightning – Newmarket double. Rory’s Jester is the maternal grandsire of Not A Single Doubt (also a flashy chestnut) sire of one of the hottest sires in the country in Extreme Choice. This pair has sired the last two Slipper winners between them in Farnan (2020) by Not a Single Doubt and Stay Inside (2021) by Extreme Choice. This line well represented today by She's Extreme. 

In 1990 Canny Lad continues the legacy of Star Kingdom sire of the inaugural winner Todman via champion sire Bletchingly. Canny Lad is most famous as the sire of the dams of Redoute’s Choice and I am Invincible. Two of the most dominant sires in Australia of the last two decades. Canny Lad is also the dam sire of 2019 winner Kiamichi. In his own right Canny Lad is the sire of 51 stakes winners 9 at Group 1 level.

Danzero winning in 1994 would reshape the breeding world as this marked the start of the age of breed shaping sire Danehill. Starting with Danzero in 1994 Danehill would go on to sire the next two Slipper winners to make it three on the trot and sire 5 of the next 10 Slipper winners. This record I don't think will ever be broken.  Danehill's dominance completed a full circle with a procession of Danehill grandsons siring Slipper winners starting with Danzero (Dance Hero 2004) then Redout'es Choice (Stratum and Miss Finland 2005 – 2006) followed up by Flying Spur (Forensics  2007) with his first Slipper winner. I think half to three-quarters of the field today would be carrying a son or grandson of Danehill today with many of his Slipper sons/daughters and grandsons/granddaughters represented in the pedigrees of today’s runners. Now that's why they call Danehill the breed shaper!

1995 is a vintage year as history will show (see finish below). Flying Spur and Octagonal quinella the race. Flying Spur as mentioned  sired Forensics (2007) and he is the maternal grandsire of Slipper winner Sebring (2008). 2022 is Sebring’s last throw at the stumps to sire his own Slipper winner in Serjadan as Sebring died at just 13 years of age with Serjadan a superstar colt from his last ever crop. I reckon Banjo Patterson would be barracking for Serjadan today because that’s the fairytale story in today’s Slipper with some of Sebring’s owners in the ownership of Serjadan.

And runner up in 1995 was Octagonal or the Big O as he was affectionately called.  What a star he was only to be surpassed by his gun son Lonhro. In footy terms this father and son duo is to racing what Gary Ablett Sr and Gary Ablett Jr is to AFL. The big O and Little O! Little O Lonhro would carve his own Slipper legacy as the sire of Slipper winner Pierro (2012). Pierro is making his mark at stud and is the damsire of the Mick Price & Michael Kent Jr flying filly Jacquinot in today’s race.

1995 should also be called out for the filly Millrich who finished back in 3rd . She would go on to foal Redzel the dual Everest winner but she died shortly after Redzel was born and Redzel was fostered onto another mare who would raise him as an orphan foal.
 


 

The finish to the 1995 Slipper. 1st Flying Spur. 2nd The Big O - Octaganal 3rd Millrich. 4th back on the rails is Our Maizcay

Speaking of the fillies in the race in 1989 Courtza wins the Slipper. At stud she would leave her legacy as the dam of Group 1 winner and hugely successful stallion O’Reilly. Not surprisingly O’Reilly is an incredibly successful broodmare sire.
 
Many unplaced runners in the Slipper have left their mark on the race too.

Snippets –Thestory of Snippets and the 1987 Golden Slipper is a tale of hard luck and what might have been. He was equal second favourite at 7-2 or 4.50 with the eventual winner Marauding on the next line of better at  5-1 or $6. That 1987 was taken from Snippets with the race set up for the back markers like Marauding. It turned out to be one of the slowest Slippers in history because they crawled home the last 600m after Snippets was caught in a speed duel with the Luskin Star filly named Mother Duck from the gates. Together they ran the fastest first 600m in Slipper history. Snippets weakened for 5th but then would come out with a jockey change at his next start to win the Group 1 Sires. Snippets has left his hoofprint on the Slipper as the maternal grandsire of two Slipper winners  Overreach (2013) and  Crystal Lily (2010). He was the sire of 3rd placed Hasna in 2003 who would go on to emulate Snippets winning the Sires. But Hasna went one better winning the third leg of the triple crown the Champagne Stakes. Another one of Snippets best fillies is Legally Bay 5th in the 2003 Slipper behind Polar Success. Legally Bay is the dam of Coolmore Stakes winner and emerging young sire Merchant Navy.

Snippets is also the maternal grandsire of Snitzel. On the paternal side Snitzel is a grandson of Danehill. Snitzel like Snippets finished out of the placings in the Slipper after starting favorite but his list of achievements as champion Australian sire include siring the Slipper winner Estijaab (2018) and is he is the damsire of Slipper winner Mossfun (2014).

Marauding would proof himself at stud standing at  Newhaven Stud and he sired the 1998 Slipper winner Prowl. He also appears prominently in top stallion's Fastnet Rock's pedigree. 

Fast-forward to 2022 and Russian Revolution looks like continuing Snitzel’s legacy at stud with 3 runners in today’s race headed by the Blue Diamond runner up Revolutionary Miss. He looks a certainty to take out the first season sire honours this year.  


Home Affairs was another one up on the speed last year who finished unplaced. He was a big gangly kid growing into that huge frame. As it turned out he was only 6 months away from growing into that frame when you look at what he did to his rivals in the Coolmore Stakes in the spring as a three year old and in the recent Lightning Stakes he was incredible. Forget about his unplaced Newmarket run last week. I could go into why he was unplaced but lets just say pilot error and track bias and leave it at that.

ENJOY YOUR SLIPPER DAY!