Trainer Kris Lees aims to match father Max Lees by winning 2025 Golden Slipper with Rivellino

Kris Lees, the champion Newcastle trainer, will join his late father on the Golden Slipper honour roll if Rivellino wins the big race at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Kris Lees, the champion Newcastle trainer, will join his late father on the Golden Slipper honour roll if Rivellino wins the big race at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Rivellino is one of only two unbeaten two-year-olds in the $5 million race and is at $10 for what is being described as the most open Slipper in many years.

But if Rivellino can win the world’s richest juvenile race, it is unlikely he will post a winning margin to equal that of Luskin Star’s famous seven lengths Golden Slipper win back in 1977.

Lees’ father, Max, trained Luskin Star, one of the greatest two-year-olds of all-time.

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Luskin Star was known as the “Colossal colt from the Coalfields” and he followed his runaway Golden Slipper triumph by completing the coveted Sydney juvenile triple crown with wins in the ATC Sires Produce Stakes and Champagne Stakes.

“I was only a six-year-old when Luskin Star won the Golden Slipper and I can’t remember a lot about that day,’’ Kris Lees said.

“But I do know Dad was very confident going into the race although no one expected Luskin Star to win by seven lengths.’’

Max Lees with Slipper winner Luskin Star.

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Rivellino will be Lees’ second Golden Slipper starter and the trainer is hoping for a better result after Elimbari ran last in 2010.

“Elimbari wasn’t quite up to Slipper class but this colt, Rivellino, is a proper horse,’’ the trainer said.

Unbeaten Rivellino’s ownership group includes Edward Throsby who has raced horses with Lees for three decades including the trainer’s very first winner, Cherokee Lass at Newcastle in 1996.

“Edward was a bookmaker and I used to try and get his money in the Newcastle ring,’’ Lees said. “I had some luck but I couldn’t get all his money, I know that!

“We have been mates for more than 30 years and when I got a trainer’s licence, Edward said he had just bought a filly from New Zealand, asked me to train it for him and that was Cherokee Lass.’’

Rivellino is proving the best horse Lees has trained for Throsby. The colt is by boom stallion Too Darn Hot, the former top sprinter who was raced by renowned English composer Andrew Lloyd Weber.

🙌 Rivellino remains unbeaten, and announces himself as a real TAB Golden Slipper contender as he wins the G2 Skyline Stakes for @Leesracing!@aus_turf_clubpic.twitter.com/YTh8hxNtTM

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 1, 2025

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The talented Rivellino is the first foal to race out of the So You Think mare Intrinsic, who Lees trained to win three races and finish fourth in two stakes races.

Rivellino cost $180,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale and is named after a key member of Brazil’s famous 1970 World Cup-winning football team.

With three wins from as many starts, Rivellino has already earned nearly $1.5 million prizemoney and has been so impressive Lees has been able to entice another long-time friend, Hall of Fame jockey Hugh Bowman to return from Hong Kong to ride the colt in the Golden Slipper.

Bowman only arrived in Sydney on Friday and the first time he will lay eyes on Rivellino will be in the mounting yard before the Golden Slipper.

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“Hughie has ridden plenty of winners for me over the years when he has never been on a horse’s back until race day,’’ Lees said.

“Back in the day when he was young and keen, he might have come up to Newcastle to ride trackwork but that was very rare.

“But Hughie is a world class jockey, he does his ‘homework’ and Rivellino is pretty easy to ride.’’

Originally published as Trainer Kris Lees aims to match father Max Lees by winning 2025 Golden Slipper with Rivellino