History shows contenders still to emerge for Golden Slipper and challenge $50m colt Storm Boy

Dominant Magic Millions winner Storm Boy is a hot favourite to win the Golden Slipper but it won’t be a shoo-in according to one expert.

Magic Millions winner Storm Boy will find the opposition getting tougher as the Golden Slipper approaches. Picture: Grant Peters/Trackside Photography

Has the Golden Slipper winner already sported silks this season? Or is there an unknown two-year-old about to make a late charge for the world’s richest juvenile race?

There is only eight weeks until the glamour Rosehill race but if money talks then the Slipper trophy might as well be presented to Storm Boy’s owners now.

Earlier this week, it was reported Storm Boy is about to be purchased by Coolmore in a mind-boggling deal that potentially could be worth more than $50m.

Storm Boy, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, is unbeaten in three starts and is the dominant $3 favourite for the Golden Slipper after his brilliant win in the Magic Millions earlier this month.

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Some form experts have rated Storm Boy’s Magic Millions win as the best ever in the Gold Coast two-year-old race but Timeform rating genius Gary Crispe has a more conservative take on the colt’s Gold Coast effort.

Crispe gave Storm Boy a 116 Timeform figure for the Magic Millions which is well below the highest rating for a Magic Millions winner recorded by Dance Hero when he returned 123 winning in 2004.

Capitalist is the last to complete the Magic Millions-Golden Slipper double in 2016. He rated the same Timeform figure as Storm Boy with a 116 rating at the Gold Coast win then lifted that figure to 122 winning the Golden Slipper.

“If Storm Boy can do a Capitalist and go to 122 then he will go very close to winning the Slipper,’’ Crispe added.

“Storm Boy is very smart but it wasn’t a vintage Magic Millions field. I think there is more opposition to come.’’

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There is every likelihood Storm Boy’s opposition is about to hot up over the Australia Day long weekend.

At Caulfield on Friday, there are two divisions of the Blue Diamond Preview attracting 19 entries with 16 youngsters making their debut.

Then Saturday’s Royal Randwick has the Join ATC Membership Handicap (1000m) for two-year-olds that has 13 starters plus two emergencies, with only three of those entries having raced previously.

Storm Boy thunders away in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic! ⛈️@GaiWaterhouse1@[e-mail]/pXRn6HkUPL

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) January 13, 2024

Randwick’s 1000m juvenile scamper doesn’t boast stakes status but has become a surprisingly important lead-up to the Golden Slipper in recent years.

In fact, two of the last six Golden Slipper winners have begun their juvenile season with wins in the Randwick handicap in late January – Estijaab (2018) and Stay Inside (2021).

The Team Hawkes-trained Estijaab romped in by four lengths at her debut, stopping the clock at 57.28sec for the Randwick 1000m.

Estijaab was only beaten once in her two-year-old season and that was by Sunlight in the Silver Slipper Stakes before winning the Golden Slipper at just her fourth start.

After being retired to stud, Estijaab was sent to England where she was served by all-time great Frankel.

The mare returned home last year and is in foal to Tassort.

Sunlight ran third in Estijaab’s Golden Slipper then trained on to win three Group 1 races, earning more than $6.5m prizemoney before being retired to stud.

Sunlight’s first foal, a colt by Coolmore Stud’s stallion phenomenon Justify, sire of Storm Boy, has been named Dawn Service and was nominated for the Randwick race on Saturday but Waterhouse and Bott have decided to wait for another day.

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Dawn Service was bred and is part-owned by Coolmore which also races Switzerland, the $1.5m Inglis Easter Yearling Sale graduate set to make his debut in the Royal Randwick two-year-old handicap.

Switzerland is a superbly bred colt by Arrowfield Stud’s super sire Snitzel out of the stakes-winning American mare, Ms Bad Behavior.

Estijaab winning the Golden Slipper in 2018. Picture: AAP

Interestingly, Ms Bad Behavior is a daughter of Blame, winner of the 2010 US Breeders Cup Classic when he narrowly defeated mighty mare Zenyatta in her swan song race, the only loss in her magnificent 20-start career which yielded 14 Group 1 wins.

Coolmore Australia supremo Tom Magnier and his trainer Chris Waller will be hoping lightning strikes twice with Switzerland.

It is almost 12 months to the day since Shinzo, also a son of Snitzel, made his race debut, running third in the Canonbury Stakes at Rosehill.

Eight weeks later, Shinzo won the Golden Slipper.

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TAB price assessors are taking no risks with Switzerland and have the colt at $2.90 in early betting.

“Switzerland looks the real deal,’’ Magnier said.

“His trials have been good so we are hopeful he can run well on Saturday.’’

It was once considered almost mandatory for a two-year-old to have raced before Christmas so he or she was seasoned and ready for the demands of a Golden Slipper campaign the following autumn.

But Shinzo became the third Golden Slipper winner in six years after Estijaab and Stay Inside to make his race debut in January.

Magnier reported Shinzo is back in work at Waller’s Rosehill stables ahead of an autumn race campaign.

“Chris is extremely happy with where the colt is at the moment,’’ Magnier said.

“By all accounts, he is going very, very well.

“He had a good spell at Mt White, (John Singleton) Singo’s old place and he looks great.’’

Shinzo will join Coolmore’s all-star stallion roster once his racing career ends and Magnier believes the colt has all the qualities to make a leading stallion.

“The Golden Slipper winner is the colt everyone wants,’’ Magnier said.

“It’s a time-tested formula – it just works.’’

Henry Field’s Newgate Farm Stud is home to two Golden Slipper-winning colts – promising stallion Capitalist and Stay Inside, who’s oldest progeny are yearlings.

Shinzo made his debut this time last year. Picture: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

Field remembers taking particular note of Stay Inside’s brilliant debut in the Randwick 1000m race three years ago when he streaked away to win nearly three lengths in a fast 56.89sec.

When Stay Inside repeated the effort taking out the Pierro Plate at his next start, Field made his move and bought a controlling interest in the young sprinter. Then in the Golden Slipper, Stay Inside won by nearly two lengths from emerging champion Anamoe.

“The Golden Slipper is the ultimate stallion-making race,’’ Field said.

“Why? Because you need a very, very sound horse with unbelievable ability, incredible precocity and a great mentality to win a Golden Slipper.

“There are plenty of horses with the talent but they are mentally not strong enough or physically not strong enough to cope with the pressure of a Slipper campaign.

“But Golden Slipper-winning colts have it all and that is why they rarely fail at stud.’’

Field is teaming up with the all-conquering Waterhouse-Bott stable and first-starter Russian Roulette at Randwick.

Russian Roulette, who is by Newgate’s emerging stallion Russian Revolution and cost $360,000 at the Magic Millions last year, has looked a ready-made two-year-old with successive barrier trial wins at Warwick Farm this month.

“Gai and Adrian really like this colt and he has trialled like a good horse,’’ Field said.

“We are looking forward to getting him to the races.’’

Field has also had plenty of juvenile success with trainers Peter and Paul Snowden from the likes of Capitalist and the owner combines with the stable again when High Octane and Holmes A Court make their debuts in Friday’s Listed $200,000 Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) for colts and geldings at Caulfield.

Both are well-bred, expensive colts with High Octane knocked down for $1.05m at the Inglis Easter Sale and Holmes A Court was a $850,000 Magic Millions graduate.

Field said High Octane and Holmes A Court have also impressed in Sydney barrier trials and there is a level of expectation both colts will make their presence felt on debut.

With so much focus on the two-year-olds this long weekend, there is a very real likelihood Golden Slipper betting will be reshaped this weekend.

Although Storm Boy is the headline act two months out from the Golden Slipper, Field said the world’s richest two-year-old race is still wide open

“Storm Boy is obviously a hell of a horse but I wouldn’t say the Golden Slipper is a put in, take out job,’’ Field said.

“A lot can change in the next two months.’’

Originally published as History shows contenders still to emerge for Golden Slipper and challenge $50m colt Storm Boy