Slipper picture a blur as online focus sharpens for Slade

Bruce Slade joined a cohort of trainers watching Randwick trackwork unfold the other morning when talk turned to the Golden Slipper.

The respected bloodstock consultant, like most at racing’s coalface, came away none the wiser about a likely winner.

In another era, approaching a month-long countdown to the $5 million race, a lot of Golden Slipper debates would have been focused on a select group of young horses with the runs on the board.

The juvenile landscape has changed, and not for the first occasion during his time racing, Slade finds himself again at the junction between hope and weight of numbers as an important cog in Tulloch Lodge’s bid for another Golden Slipper success.

Slade is sitting in the slipstream of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, knowing that his practised eye has been a major factor in the training partnership always being a force to be reckoned with at Slipper time.

But he admits having the inside running into a stable that has tasted Slipper success eight times since the turn of the century doesn’t make it any easier to solve this year’s puzzle.

“I went to trackwork on Tuesday and I came away feeling like we’ve literally got about eight two-year-olds there still that we think could end up being in the Slipper and being very competitive,” Slade told The Straight.

“It’s really about how much they improve from here until the race. At the moment, to be honest, it’s probably hard to pick a standout. 

“And that’s probably not just within our own group of two-year-olds, but that’s probably across the whole two-year-old crop as well. 

“When the acid tests come in the next few weeks … I think the cream will rise to the top, but I’m not sure any of us know who the cream is yet.  It just makes the next few weeks of two-year-old racing so fascinating.”

Golden Slipper betting has Agrarian Girl as the best of the Waterhouse-Bott team, but that assessment could be challenged when a filly with an American pedigree bred to southern hemisphere time runs in the Pierro Plate at Randwick on Saturday.

Caloocan Beauty, a daughter of Justify, steps out for the second time in her career with an expectation she has trained on well enough from her debut outing to make some kind of autumn statement.

Her story is unconventional in a Golden Slipper sense, starting out life at Newstead Farm, a showpiece property near Upperville in Virginia.

Newstead Farm is the American expansion of a South African bloodstock business owned by Caloocan Beauty’s breeders Steve and Jessica Jell.

It was, Slade says, a clever piece of placement and commerce to sell Caloocan Beauty through the Sledmere Stud draft at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, where she sold for $475,000.

The filly was bought on spec, but an extra international flavour was added to her sale when Inglis’ Nicky Wong, the underbidder for Philippines interests, was approached about a partnership.

“As we do, the whole team bought her with the view that we just wanted her for the stable, we didn’t really have anyone for her at the time,” Slade said.

“She’s a filly that is going to really improve when she gets out to sort of 1400 metres and even a mile down the track.

“But even though she’s got a lovely scope to her, she has good enough quality to be showing up as an autumn two-year-old.”

Widely respected as one of the sharpest judges in the yearling market and a key figure for Newgate Stud Farm, Slade is using the gravitas of his Kestrel Thoroughbreds business to reach a wider audience.

He has become increasingly active on social media, taking an honest and forthright approach to educate followers about the yearling selection process, industry trends, and the highs and lows of the game.

“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years … but I suppose I was concerned about what type of negative feedback you might get,” he said.

“There are just so many different other elements to the industry. And I think the more we can showcase that or talk about it, the better for the game. 

“I’ve been blown away by the feedback and the interest and the different people that are following along. 

Not preaching! 🎥

I am involved of plenty of purchases who don’t reach our hopes & expectations on race day, but we have a process we use to ⬆️ increase our chances of getting racehorses who can take our @GaiWaterhouse1 owners to the big races on the big days.

Here is an… pic.twitter.com/5FawALiaP3

— Kestrel Thoroughbreds (@bruceaslade) February 10, 2026

“In this industry, there is lots of disappointment … but it doesn’t mean we’re not trying very hard or using as much as we can in our favour to try and increase our chances for our owners and the people we work for.

“I think I’m trying to be very genuine, offering inspiration in the game and hopefully that adds some value.”