GOLDEN SLIPPER RECAP
HOPE YOU ENJOY THE GOLDEN SLIPPER!
THE BEST HORSE DIDN'T WIN!
IT WAS A WILD BUT EXCITING RACE, NONETHELESS!
As often the case, races like the Kentucky Derby and the Golden Slipper where traffic and luck have to go hand-in-hand, and this year's Golden Slipper is an example of the best horse in the race didn't win [as Storm Boy's chances were dashed at the start when the colt was slow out of the barriers (starting gates) and ended up three lengths back in the first 50 yards or so.]
Leading up to the race a lot of experts of Australian racing, myself included, thought the favorite Storm Boy was a synch to win the Golden Slipper.
If you're a fan of the Kentucky Derby you know how hard it is to win the Kentucky Derby, even odd-on favorites have succumbed to the unpredictability of the Kentucky Derby, i.e., odd-on favorites like Easy Goer (1989), Pioneer of the Nile (2009), Essential Quality (2021), just to name a few.
The Golden Slipper is right up there with the Kentucky Derby in term of prestige, significance, and the degrees of difficulties of winning the race.
Maybe because of the degrees of difficulties of winning these two races -- and that's why we (horseracing fans) can't seem to see or have enough of the Kentucky Derby or the Golden Slipper.
I don't know about you all, but for me -- this is very true for me: I can't seem to see or have enough of the Kentucky Derby or the Golden Slipper.
These two races got to be my favorite races in the world, and each year I look forward to these two races non-stop!!!
As for this year's Golden Slipper -- it was a wild and exciting race -- and it worths every tick of the time staying up late Friday night at 1:30 a.m. (US Central Time) to watch one of the two greatest horseracing in the world.
Here is an excerpt of the race written by an Australian horseracing writer:
Gai Waterhouse shines again on sport's grandest stage
There's nothing this genuine, passionate, authentic and legendary lady can't do.
She takes on racing administrators, blasts dole-bludging anti-racing activists and wins Australia's biggest races for fun.
In one of the most compelling bits of sporting TV you will ever see, Waterhouse gave her six-pack (of Golden Slipper runners) a dose of special commentary from the comfort of home where she was confined with a banged-up knee.
Slipper favourite Storm Boy was looking to become the most famous Storm Boy since the kid with the pelicans in the classic book and movie of the same name.
Nothing had gone wrong with the potential $60m colt – until now.
Second last out of the gates, the tickets of favourite backers looked confetti but Waterhouse was still cheering and throwing her arms around as Storm Boy made a brave lurch before starting to fade late.
Just as a frown appeared on her face, Waterhouse excitedly pointed at the telly to daughter Kate alongside of her.
"The filly, the filly!"
The filly was Lady Of Camelot, one of four horses of the fairer sex in the smallest representation from the fillies in a Slipper for many years.
This special Lady was $13 or better before the barrier draw earlier in the week but was sensationally backed and started $6.50, with punters sensing the Blue Diamond form was good.
[By Paul Tuon: Lady Of Camelot ran 2nd to Hayasugi in the Blue Diamond stakes on Saturday February 24, 2024.]
The filly which vanquished Lady Of Camelot in the Blue Diamond, Hayasugi, was also a big firmer in the days leading into the Slipper and started $10 before finishing last.
Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Lady Of Camelot was given a lovely Slipper ride by Blake Shinn, sitting behind the pace, and then pouncing with precision.
[By Paul Tuon: Adrian Bott was Gai Waterhouse assistance for many years but recently [2016] he took a trainer license to become Gai Waterhouse's co-trainer overseeing Gai Waterhouse horseracing stable. So horses from Gai Waterhouse's stable are run under both Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as trainers.]
Shinn was sitting pretty in the Slipper at a time when James McDonald was having to rouse up second favourite Switzerland which was gone a long way out.
Shinn is a jockey of the highest calibre but it wasn't that long ago his career could have been at the crossroads when exiting the rich Hong Kong racing mecca.
But as champions do, Shinn put his head down and worked even harder, becoming Victoria's champion jockey and he has now snatched his second Golden Slipper to go with the one he won on Capitalist in 2016.
[By Paul Tuon: Victoria is a northern region in Australia. It is equivalent to the West Coast in the US. You know the West (mainly California) has less horse population density than the Midwest and East, and Victoria region has very small horse population density as well compared to the southern region where Sydney is located.]
Shinn would have loved being the Slipper party pooper, given all the talk of the gazillions of dollars in potential stud deals if a top colt [Storm Boy] won the rich dash.
He also got the better of glamour jockeys McDonald and FIFO hoop Ryan Moore who were expected to fight out the finish of the Slipper.
That battle never eventuated.
Meanwhile, Gai rode off into the sunset with her eighth Slipper and it's the race she always coveted when growing up and watching her famous father Tommy win them.
Gai has now owned the Slipper so completely that perhaps one day the race should bear her name.
If you wanted a glimpse into Gai's brain and what makes her so unbelievably good at collecting Slippers, you only needed to listen to an interview which aired on Channel 7 before the race.
"Training two-year-old horses is like having little kids," Waterhouse beamed.
"It's a very enjoyable thing to do."
It's that sense of fun and enjoyment which keeps Waterhouse ticking.
The great news is that this national treasure isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Retirement from training is the furthest thing from her mind.
"Once you retire, I don't care if you are a journalist or a doctor or a judge or a horse trainer, the phone stops ringing," Waterhouse told me last year.
"No-one wants to ring you up, because what have you got to offer?
"You need to be working at the coalface."
Lady Of Camelot and not Storm Boy delivered trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott the Golden Slipper they seemed destined to win all season.
Waterhouse watched the race on the couch at her Balmoral home, and cheered home her eighth Golden Slipper winner, and her second with Bott after they won with Farnan in 2020.
Lady Of Camelot provided Waterhouse with her 160th Group 1 win and the 34th major race win with Bott since they formed their training partnership in 2016.
A Channel 7 television crew was filming at Waterhouse's home as the trainer's watched Storm Boy dash through near the rails, hitting the front near the 200m before he was collared by Coleman.
The Hall of Fame trainer's initial disappointment was replaced with amazement when she pointed her finger at the television screen and shouted: "The filly … the filly!"
"Wasn't that fabulous, just amazing," said.
"The Golden Slipper is just the most incredible race to win. You never tire of this feeling you get winning the Golden Slipper.
"There has been a lot of pressure on us but Adrian does a magnificent job and we are so proud of our two-year-olds this season.
"Lady Of Camelot came back from the Blue Diamond, where she was a bit unlucky, and she has gone to another level since. We expected her to be in there fighting out the finish and so did a lot of punters.
"As for Storm Boy, he was very courageous. He missed the start and has run an amazing race."
Bott admitted he was also concentrating on Storm Boy as the colt ducked back to the inside and joined the leaders halfway down the straight and was oblivious to the trouble that Lady Of Camelot struck momentarily.
"I was watching Storm Boy try to pick up and I lost track of the others at that point," Bott said. "The way the track has been playing, it has been difficult for them to come up the inside.
"But Lady Of Camelot has been very brave to do that as well and a great ride by Blake Shinn.
"It's quite phenomenal for her owner, Sir Owen Glenn, I'm delighted for him, he puts so much into the industry. Lady Of Camelot is a home-bred and we trained the mare, Miss Debutante.
"This is Miss Debutante's third foal after Queen Of The Ball and Platinum Jubilee, they've all been two-year-old stakes winners, they have all run in the Golden Slipper and now Lady Of Camelot, obviously the best of them, had won the race."
One of only four fillies in the field, Lady Of Camelot began brilliantly and was given the run of the race by Blake Shinn until the turn in the $5 million TAB Golden Slipper (1200m).
Lady Of Camelot and Storm Boy were alongside each other at the 400m but Ryan Moore on the favourite switched back to the inside while Shinn patiently waited for a gap.
For a few strides, Lady Of Camelot ($6.50) looked likely to be held up but she shouldered Dublin Down aside and dived between runners to score a famous win by a head from Coleman ($41) with Storm Boy ($2.60 favourite) one-and-a-half lengths away third before a Slipper Day crowd of 17,627.
Waterhouse and Bott have dominated two-year-old racing all season and saddled up six of the 16 runners in the Golden Slipper for their first and third placings. Their other runners were Straight Charge (sixth), Fully Lit (10th), Prost (13th) and Shangri La Express (15th).
Victorian filly Hayasugi, who defeated Lady Of Camelot in the Blue Diamond, ran last.
Bott said Storm Boy is likely to press on to the ATC Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) and Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick next month but is undecided if Lady Of Camelot will attempt to complete the coveted juvenile triple crown.
Shinn, who won his second Golden Slipper after partnering Capitalist in 2016, said to win the world's richest juvenile race for Waterhouse and Bott was particularly special.
"This is one of the iconic races in Sydney, but it's the world's richest two-year-old race and it's the one us jockeys here want to win," Shinn said.
"To do it for my second time and for Adrian and, in particular Gai, who brought me to Sydney in the first place. Then, to come back from Hong Kong, Gai and Adrian gave me a lot of support.
"To do it for them, it's very special, a lot of hard work goes into these moments. It just feels really good."
Shinn revealed he felt Lady Of Camelot was going to be hard to beat after riding the filly for the first time in a barrier trial at Hawkesbury.
"In the trial and we learned a lot about her," Shinn said. "It gave me confidence, and the stable, to be able to execute that going into today.
"She broke really well and when I was able to get that position, everything was just going to plan nicely, I just needed the gap to happen.
"A little bit like Capitalist, when I won on him in 2016, we got it and she did the rest. It was really special."
Coolmore Australia boss Tom Magnier, who purchased Storm Boy in a multimillion dollar deal, was magnanimous in defeat.
"It was hard to watch Storm Boy because he was slow away," Magnier said.
"I'm not making excuses, I think the winner was absolutely fantastic and congratulations to the whole team, but we're obviously feeling disappointed.
"Ryan (Moore, jockey) said Storm Boy was slow away and got further back than he wanted to be.
"It's the game we're in, you have good days and bad days and you've got to learn to take the bad ones.
"He's a lovely horse, they're both lovely horses and we'll have a nice dinner tonight and we can relax and think about it on Monday."
[By Paul Tuon: WOW! -- THAT WAS A GREAT ARTICLE!]
I never get old or tired seeing the Kentucky Derby or the Golden Slipper.
See you all in a little over a month!
For the Golden Slipper -- see you all next year!
I can't wait!
