Fitting the $lipper: the most expensive Golden Slipper field in history

Cover image courtesy of Longines

Tomorrow's $5 million Golden Slipper will go down as the most blue-blooded ever, with the 14 runners sold at auction (from the 17 final acceptors) bringing $8,857,500 through the sale ring as yearlings at an average price of $632,678 and median of $505,000.

They are numbers that leave tomorrow’s race to be fought out by the biggest players in Australian and world racing.

A cursory glance at the almost $10 million on offer across the Rosehill card on Saturday tells you why buyers are prepared to spend big bucks on the best yearlings.

The collective runners in the five Rosehill Group 1 races have won $95 million between them. Add in runners in the five support races on the card and you’re up to a raceday where the equine athletes have amassed more than $120 million in prizemoney.

Back in 2002/03, gross yearling sale receipts were 70 per cent of total prizemoney, and today it's 73 per cent - an insignficant change.

However in that two decades, prizemoney has grown to $879 million – up on the $315 million paid out twenty years ago. So while yearling prices have grown, they have, unsurprisingly, grown commensurate with the prizemoney increases.

The runners in tomorrow’s Golden Slipper cost just short of $9 million (noted, that three of them weren’t sold) but going into tomorrow’s race have already won $10.35 million between them.

The capacity G1 George Ryder field has collectively won a staggering $37.5 million, while the speedsters vying for the $1 million on offer in G1 The Galaxy have a combined $26 million in earnings.

Selling a dream

While by no means the only goal, having a Golden Slipper runner ticks a lot of the boxes on what buyers set out to achieve when they look for precocious young horses at yearling sales.

For sales companies, it is important for some of their highest priced yearlings to turn up in a Slipper the following year.

“A lot of these horses are bought to be blue chip colts and to see so many of them find their way into the Slipper field is very pleasing for our clients,” Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said.

“They spent a huge amount of money in 2023 and to get to the ultimate goal has to be very gratifying for the buyers. They put a lot of time effort and money into buying these horses and to have them there is an outstanding effort in its own right, let alone if one takes home the big prize.”

The last two Golden Slipper winners were not sold at public auction, although Inglis Bloodstock Chief Executive Sebastian Hutch points out last year’s winner Shinzo (Snitzel) was in utero when his dam Samaready (More Than Ready {USA} was sold to Coolmore for $1.8 million at the 2020 Inglis Chairman’s Sale.

So too was the 2021 winner Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), who’s dam Nothin’ Leica Storm (Anabaa {USA}) was sold for $90,000 at the Chairman’s Sale. Stay Inside would be later sold as a weanling for $60,000 and then finally for $200,000 at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale.

Inglis haven’t had the same volume of Golden Slipper winners as Magic Millions in the past two decades, but Easter has been the source of the two most expensive Slipper winners in that time – Forensics (Flying Spur) for $900,000 and Estijaab (Snitzel) for $1,700,000.

“(The Slipper) is a significant motivation in the eyes of purchasers in terms of their approach at the sales. It’s not an exclusive one, but I think people see the opportunity in pursuing 2-year-old riches and then recognize the fact there is life beyond those races,” Hutch said.

“The market is evolving and the profile of the races is changing all the time, but the Slipper has remained consistent in terms of its significance to Australian racing and breeding.

“There are probably some other races that are starting to become as significant, races like the Coolmore at Flemington. Those (two races) are significant in different ways, but they have the best horses in the context of their crop. They bring together the strongest members of the crop at an appropriate time in their respective age groups.

“The Slipper has always been a hugely significant race and (Saturday’s) race is a perfectly good illustration of that.”

Hutch feels the landscape of juvenile racing in Australia has changed and continues to change, but it doesn’t diminish the significance of what the Golden Slipper has to offer.

“The compilation (of the Slipper field) feels different to how it would have been compiled 20 or 30 years ago,” he said. “That’s not to say it hasn’t brought together the best 2-year-olds of the crop, because very clearly the ones who are there are the ones who have shown the attitude and aptitude to get there.

“It looks like a sensational race. It’s pleasing to see people who have patronised our various sales have had luck with Slipper runners.

“Whether it’s the weanling sale, Classic or Easter, it’s nice to have significant representation in the race. It’s going to be a fantastic spectacle.”

Magic Millions has marketed their undeniable Golden Slipper success unashamedly over the past two decades and Bowditch says the race is a key selling point of the company’s showpiece Gold Coast sale in January.

“The precocity of what we sell, those early horses each year, it lends itself to having a big opportunity of winning the Slipper,” he said. “Having some nine graduates in (Saturday’s) race is evident of the opportunity our sale gives the buyers.”

The 2024 Field and their purchase prices

What does a Slipper winner cost?

Table: five most expensive yearlings in the last 20 years

Table: five cheapest yearlings in the last 20 years

It took a long time of others trying, but Easter graduate Estijaab fired a salvo for the seven figure yearlings when she triumphed in the Emirates colours for Team Hawkes in 2018.

In a perfect illustration of how everyone is a chance in Australian racing, Estijaab (Snitzel) lobbed just 12 months after the $20,000 Inglis Classic find She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) ploughed through the mud to give Gary Portelli his first Golden Slipper.

Mossfun (Mossman) in the same decade was also a sub-$100,000 purchase, plucked from Easter for just $85,000. More recently, Farnan became just the third horse bought for $500,000 or more to win the race.

The class of 2024 – pedigree rich

Including the first emergency Espionage (Zoustar), the 2024 Golden Slipper field includes seven horses that sold for $500,000 or more at the yearling sales, headed by four at $1 million or higher.

That surpasses the 2020 Slipper, which had six sold for $500,000 or more, including the winner Farnan.

In 2021 that figure dropped back to just three and in 2022 the highest priced runners in the race were Best Of Bordeaux (Snitzel) and Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution) at $425,000.

Last year’s Slipper did not have a $1 million yearling, but like 2020, there were six that sold for more than half a million dollars.

The Golden Slipper runners since 2020 who sold for $500,000 or more

Table: Golden Slipper runners in 2023 who sold for $500,000 or more

There were no $500,000 plus runners in 2022.

Table: Golden Slipper runners in 2021 who sold for $500,000 or more

Table: Golden Slipper runners in 2020 who sold for $500,000 or more