Why the Slipper is unrivalled as a race of Golden opportunities

In an era when Australian racing seems to be constantly trying to reinvent itself, statistics confirm that the outcome of Golden Slipper remains unchallenged for importance and influence to our breeding industry.

While the Melbourne Cup has expanded its reach to capture international attention and mega prize money races with a different spin such as The Everest have quickly secured a foothold, the Golden Slipper does more to shape the future of Australian thoroughbred racing.

That in itself comes with some degree of irony, given the Golden Slipper’s introduction to the Australian racing scene almost seven decades ago emanated from a piece of left-field thinking that had its critics.

It was one of the Sydney Turf Club’s founding directors, George Ryder, who came up with the concept of a race for two-year-olds that he thought would add prestige to the Sydney autumn carnival.

Coinciding with the arrival in Australia of the Irish-bred stallion Star Kingdom who sired the first five Golden Slippers, the helter-skelter nature of the contest took off and it hasn’t looked back as a race that consistently fashions bloodlines.

Put simply, the Golden Slipper’s honour roll is a celebration of Australia’s fascination with precociousness over stamina, starting with the inaugural winner Todman in 1957.

Based on a study of figures provided by Aushorse, the marketing body of the Australian thoroughbred industry, the Golden Slipper’s importance continues to grow.

That’s why there will be a lot more at stake than the winner’s purse of $2.8 million during 70 seconds – the time it usually takes to run the race – of pure speed at Rosehill on Saturday.

A fortune in stud fees is a lock if one of the 12 colts in the field can win but Aushorse’s deep dive into the numbers since the turn of the century suggests even those among the beaten brigade will have the odds in their favour as a future stallion.

Since 2000, there have been 177 colts contest the Slipper and 105 of those have gone to stud at a rate of 59.3 per cent.

From that sample, Stratum (2005), Sebring (2008), Sepoy (2011), Pierro (2012), Vancouver (2015), Capitalist (2016), Farnan (2020) and Stay Inside (2021) had their stud careers fast-tracked as winning colts.

But as the numbers reveal, a Golden Slipper defeat is by no means the end of the world for a budding stallion.

It just means it might take another season or two of racing to confirm stud bona fides and there is no better example of this than champion sires Snitzel, Exceed And Excel, Written Tycoon, Fastnet Rock and more recently Extreme Choice.

Snitzel finished down the course as favourite when 12th in Stratum’s year but he earned a high-profile spot on Arrowfield Stud’s roster courtesy of a Group 1 win in the Oakleigh Plate 12 months later.

His impact on the Golden Slipper since has been extraordinary with more runners than any other stallion this century, including last year’s winner Shinzo.

Switzerland and Prost will take Snitzel’s Slipper representation to 25 starters on Saturday.

Written Tycoon finished ahead of Snitzel when they met in the 2005 Slipper but couldn’t land a Group 1 win and had to start his stud career among the lower rung of first-season sires.

But it did not impede his path to greater heights, highlighted by his son Capitalist’s victory in the world’s richest two-year-old race and a champion Australian sires’ title in the 2020-21 racing season.

Exceed And Excel ran down the track in 2003 Slipper won by Polar Success but two Group 1 wins during his three-year-old season, including the Newmarket Handicap, made him a sought-after stallion prospect.

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Retired from stud duties earlier this month, Exceed And Excel bows out as Australia’s most prolific stakes-producing stallion with still a bit more to give.

The sire of the 2013 Slipper winner Overreach, Exceed And Excel will have his 22nd runner in the race when Eneeza lines up on Saturday.

Exceed And Excel is also the grandsire of another 2024 runner, Dublin Down and also the dam sire of Traffic Warden and Rue De Royale.

Fastnet Rock ran fourth in the 2004 Slipper and like Snitzel and Exceed And Excel, he sealed a stud deal with his Lightning Stakes and Oakleigh Plate wins at Group 1 level the following season.

He has been represented by his progeny 18 times in the Slipper with his daughters Mosheen (2011) and Lake Geneva (2015) figuring in the placings.

Extreme Choice is another example of an unplaced Slipper colt leaving his mark at stud as the sire of the 2021 winner Stay Inside.

And the demand for more recent Slipper graduates as stallion prospects shows no signs of abating.

Between 2018 and 2022, almost 70 per cent of the colts who lined up in the race have found a home at stud.

They are scattered across Australasia from Western Australia (Long Leaf) to the New Zealand-based Santos who is now a Group 1 producing sire.

That trend is set to continue among the colts engaged this year with most already having a connection to a stud or a high-profile syndicate, including the Coolmore-backed favourites Storm Boy and Switzerland.