Another filly made to fit the Golden Slipper for Emirates Park

A decade on from when Mossfun sliced through the Rosehill mud to claim a first Golden Slipper for Emirates Park, Manaal is aiming to become the third winner of the famous two-year-old race in the green and white silks of His Excellency Nasser Lootah.

Emirates Park’s record in the Slipper would be the envy of any breeding operation, with Mossfun’s win in 2014 followed by Estijaab in 2018.  

Unlike both of these winners, Manaal is an Emirates Park homebred and a filly that, by design, has been bred for the Golden Slipper. But as Emirates Park general manager Bryan Carlson tells The Straight, it doesn’t make the race any easier to win.

“The Golden Slipper is a high-pressure race and it always has been,” he says. “When Mossfun won it 10 years ago, she missed the start and it was just a case of luck where James McDonald had her come up the rail for that win. A lot of things can go wrong in a Slipper and you need a lot of luck.”

Emirates Park has had nine individual runners in the Golden Slipper; Manaal will be its 10th. Should she win, she will be the farm’s third winning filly and, in time, add further to its regal broodmare band.

“For any farm to have two Golden Slipper winners is exciting. To have three with another filly would be outstanding,” Carlson says. “One of our main targets every year is the Slipper. Hussain (Lootah, principal) loves the race and he breeds for it.”

So what does a Golden Slipper victory do for the value of an Emirates Park filly?

“A lot,” Carlson says. “With Mossfun, before the race she probably didn’t have a super pedigree. I mean, it was a good pedigree, but she won the Slipper and she’s since produced Dajraan (a Group Three winner), and another of her daughters has now produced (Slipper runner) Bodyguard.

“You could say that this has now become a Golden Slipper family, and we’ve since sold two million-dollar yearlings out of it. If you get Slipper-winning fillies, you get broodmares.”

Bodyguard is in the field this weekend alongside Manaal. He’s another reason to cheer for Emirates Park.

Bodyguard is a son of I Am Invincible and the first foal from Tumooh, a daughter of Mossfun. The colt was bought by James Harron on the Gold Coast last year for an eye-watering $1.6 million, with an obvious view to a stud career. 

He’s yet to do much wrong, winning the Listed Maribyrnong Trial and Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude, and he was a last-start fourth in the Todman Stakes behind Switzerland.

Tumooh herself was unraced, but she is a daughter of a Golden Slipper winner and that counts for something. At the same Gold Coast sale that sold Bodyguard, Mossfun’s latest son, also by I Am Invinvible. sold big at $1.65 million. 

In other words, this is a highly commercial family now. The race has had a similar effect on Estijaab.

After her victory in the 2018 Golden Slipper, she was sent to the United Kingdom to visit Frankel, the result of which was the filly Ejaabiyah, who is on an Epsom Oaks campaign for Newmarket trainer Roger Varian. Last spring, Estijaab returned to Australia in foal to the boom American sire Gun Runner.

“We’ve got five daughters of Mossfun now and two daughters of Estijaab already, so right there we’ve got seven broodmares without doing anything,” Carlson says. “These Slipper fillies, they’re valuable. You’ve only got to go back through the Slipper winners to see how good they were as broodmares.

“And that’s our aim, it’s to produce good horses, race them and breed them to keep producing these good families.”

A sweep back through Golden Slipper-winning fillies reveals Miss Finland, Bint Marscay and Bounding Away as some of the exceptional breeding talent to emerge from this race.

Courtza, the dam of sire sensation O’Reilly, won the Slipper in 1989, while the 1996 winner, Merlene, didn’t produce a stakes winner, but her daughter Shirley did, resulting in Dear Demi down the line.

Manaal will have her work cut out for her to join this list on Saturday. 

In Tuesday’s Golden Slipper barrier draw, she drew the widest gate (17), though she will push into 16 with emergencies. Since the year 2000, only two horses have won from this difficult gate and they were Phelan Ready in 2009 and Vancouver in 2015. 

However, wide-draw winners haven’t been unusual. Kiamichi won the Slipper in 2019 from barrier 14, and Estijaab herself leaped from 14. 

Speaking to the press after Tuesday’s draw, Manaal’s trainer, Michael Freedman, who won the Slipper with Stay Inside three years ago, said he was hoping that, as was the case with Mossfun 10 years ago, it will be a closer’s final furlong, something that Carlson is also hoping for.

“Manaal is not going to be at the front, but she’s a filly that will be coming home and hitting the line at the end. If she gets a bit of luck and anything goes wrong for the others, she’s definitely a chance,” Carlson says.

The Slipper betting this year is dominated by the boom colts Storm Boy and Switzerland, both of whom will run for Coolmore interests.

While Bodyguard was the most expensive yearling in the field, Storm Boy is streets ahead on earnings of nearly $2.2 million. He is undefeated through four starts, including a pair of Group races and the Magic Millions 2YO Classic, and the manner of his victories has so far suggested an unmatched dominance.

Manaal, meanwhile, has followed a traditional fillies’ path into Saturday. 

She won the Gimcrack Stakes early in the spring, but as sharp as Gimcrack winners have proved in the past (consider Coolangatta), she would be its first winner to win a Golden Slipper. In comparison, the Gimcrack’s male counterpart, the Breeders’ Plate, has produced eight winners.

Manaal was then second to Lady Of Camelot in the Group 3 Widden Stakes in February before winning, with some conviction, the Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes on March 2.

“These Slipper fillies, they’re valuable. You’ve only got to go back through the Slipper winners to see how good they were as broodmares.” – Bryan Carlson 

The Sweet Embrace has produced four Slipper winners in its history, namely Fireburn two years ago, Dark Eclipse in 1980, Century Miss in 1979 and Toy Show in 1975.

“Manaal is exciting for us on many fronts,” Carlson says. “We bought her mother in America (for US$500,000) and she was a very fast mare herself. I think she still holds the track record at Belmont Park.”

Manaal’s dam, Red Lodge, set the five-furlong record at Belmont Park in May 2016 when a two-year-old carrying 116 lbs (52.6 kgs). Her first foal after her Emirates Park purchase was Fightertown, who sold for $1.1 million to Coolmore as a 2022 yearling.

Fightertown, by Snitzel, didn’t live up to his price tag, but when Emirates Park sent Red Lodge to Tassort for her second foal, it produced Manaal.

 The result is additionally satisfying because Emirates Park owns 50 per cent of Tassort, who stands at Newgate.

“We bought Tassort from Godolphin and I sold 50 per cent of him to Newgate,” Carlson says. “We’re heavily invested in the stallion and we’re a big believer in him. It has worked out all round because Tassort was a favourite for the Slipper at one point and he’s going very well as a sire at Newgate.”

Tassort is currently fourth on the first-season sires’ table in Australia, trailing Royal Meeting, Alabama Express and Too Darn Hot. From 14 runners at the time of writing, he has posted five winners, behind only Alabama Express by that measure.

Manaal is Tassort’s only runner in Saturday’s Golden Slipper, while his freshman counterparts Alabama Express, Exceedance and Pierata are also represented.

Tassort was ruling favourite for the Slipper in 2019, but was ruled out in the weeks leading up to the race with a hoof injury and never raced again.