Golden Slipper: What you need to know

THE GOLDEN SLIPPER

1200m, $3.5 million, two-year-old race at Rosehill

HISTORY

* Todman won the inaugural Slipper in 1957 by eight lengths and started at 1-6

* The world’s richest race for juveniles

* Magic Night (1961) the first filly to win

* Won by 28 colts, seven geldings and 26 fillies

* Eighteen favourites have won, the latest Vancouver (2015)

* TJ Smith is the only person to have bred, owned and trained a Golden Slipper winner – Bounding Away in 1986

* Smith also shares the Slipper training record of six wins – Fairy Walk (1971), John’s Hope (1972), Hartshill (1974), Toy Show (1975), Bounding Away (1986) and Star Watch in 1988

* Smith’s daughter Gai Waterhouse has also trained six, while Bart Cummings, Lee Freedman and Clarry Conners have won it four times

* Waterhouse trained the trifecta in 2001 when her first winner Ha Ha beat Excellerator and Red Hannigan

* Waterhouse’s other Slipper winners are: Dance Hero (2004), Sebring (2008), Pierro (2012), Overreach (2013) and Vancouver (2015)

* Waterhouse can make it seven and her training partner Adrian Bott can get his first with Farnan.

* 2016 winner Capitalist is the first two-year-old to sweep the Listed Breeders’ Plate, Gold Coast Magic Millions Classic, and Golden Slipper.

TALKING POINTS:

* Barrier one is the most successful producing nine winners.

* Barrier 13 is the most unlucky – no winners

* Winning barriers and the last winner to jump from them are: Barrier 1 – nine winners (Overreach 2013); 2 – three (Capitalist 2016); 3 – six (Catbird 1999); 4 – five (Century Miss 1979); 5 – four (Sebring 2008); 6 – three (Stratum 2005); 7 – two (Miss Finland 2006); 8 – six (Sepoy 2011); 9 – three (Sweet Embrace 1967); 10 – five (Danzero 1994); 11 – five (She Will Reign 2017); 12 – two (Inspired 1984); 13 – nil (-); 14 – five (Kiamichi 2019) 15 – one (Star Watch 1988); 16 – two (Vancouver 2015).

* Only two horses have broken their maiden with a Slipper win – Sweet Embrace (1967) and Fairy Walk (1971).

* The Golden Slipper is the first leg of the 2YO triple crown followed by the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and Champagne Stakes

* Six horses have won all three: Pierro (2012), Dance Hero 2004, Burst (1992), Tierce (1991), Luskin Star (1977) and Baguette (1970)

WHAT THE KEY PLAYERS ARE SAYING:

“Taking a line through those performances (in the Silver Slipper and Todman Stakes) and what history has shown, I certainly feel we’ve got as good a chance as we’ve had for a very long time going into the Slipper,” Farnan’s co-trainer Adrian Bott

“I’m thrilled to get her in the race. I think she’ll make her own luck running on the pace and be hard to beat,” – Minhaaj’s co-trainer David Hayes

“I said after she won at Flemington that she was like Miss Finland and her run in the Blue Diamond was similar to Miss Finland’s. So I’m very happy with her,” – Hayes on Personal

“She turned up the heat in the Magic Night on the weekend and proved she could handle the pressure,” – Thermosphere’s trainer James Cummings

“For an inexperienced horse it was good to draw the fence. It gives him something to follow. If you watch his race the other day, when he was outside the leader he was a little bit new but when he beat it off and went to the fence it gave him confidence and he ran away from them a bit” – Mamaragan’s trainer John Thompson