Silver Slipper Stakes 2024 Tips, Betting Odds, Past Winners & Results

The Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes is an 1100-metre sprint for two-year-old horses of both genders plus geldings.

It is raced at Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney under set weight conditions – 56.5 kilograms for colts and geldings and 54.5 kilograms for fillies.

 

Silver Slipper Stakes Race Details

Date: 17/2/24

Time: TBA

Racecourse: Rosehill

Race Distance: 1100m

Conditions: TBA

Prize Money: $250,000

How To Bet On The Silver Slipper Stakes

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Silver Slipper Stakes Betting Tips

1. TBA

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When Is The Silver Slipper Stakes: 17/2/24

What Time Is The Silver Slipper Stakes: TBA

Where Is The Silver Slipper Stakes: Rosehill Racecourse

How To Live Stream The Silver Slipper Stakes

To live stream the Silver Slipper Stakes, TAB Account Holders can watch the race live.

More Details About The Silver Slipper Stakes

The Group 2 Silver Slipper Stakes is an 1100-metre sprint for two-year-old horses of both genders plus geldings.

It is raced at Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney under set weight conditions – 56.5 kilograms for colts and geldings and 54.5 kilograms for fillies.

The race is held near the end of February, with prizemoney of $250,000.

The winner in 2022 was Best Of Bordeaux.

He is a 2019 foal by Snitzel from Chateau Cheval. There are some French ancestors in his lines, but he is predominantly of Australian extraction, with ties to Redoute’s Choice, Snippets, Canny Land and the usual northern hemisphere suspects that seem to be in the pedigrees of the better types.

Best Of Bordeaux has already won almost $1.5 million from eight jumps for three wins and three placings. His first official jump supplied a win in the Group 3 Canonbury Stakes at Rosehill. His most recent win was the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes at Randwick in October of 2022. He jumped in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes for a distant third and he ran seventh in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington, where he was actually closer to the winner than he had been in the Manikato Stakes.

We suspect he will be off to the barns soon, as his pedigree is the sort that can supply 10 times what he could ever hope to gain racing, without the risk of racing. Which is not to say serving mares is the safest thing a stallion could do.

The race is generally viewed as the lead up for the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes. Seven winners of the Silver Slipper Stakes have gone on to win the Golden Slipper from 57 jumps of the race, so we will leave anyone to form their own conclusions as to what sort of form this supplies.

Two-year-old gallopers are tough to handicap. What looks good at two might not fire at three or older. Conversely, a two-year-old might need time to develop and then win well at three, four and five.

The great perquisite for winners of the Silver Slipper Stakes, though, is a ballot exemption for the Golden Slipper Stakes.

There are no multiple winners, of course, as you’re only two once, although we have known some people that have made lives out of being perpetual two-year-olds. It does not work that way for horses.

The race attracts better types; at least, they went on to be better types, as we will see when we examine the racing history of the race.

History of the Silver Slipper Stakes

The race was first run in 1963 as part of the spring racing season until it was moved to late summer after 1996, which led to the race not being held for the 1997 calendar year racing tips.

We will be looking at the horses that won the race, and then went on to win the Golden Slipper, but for now, those horses were – Eskimo Prince (1964), Baguette (1970), Luskin Star (1977), Pierro (2012), Mossfun (2014), She Will Reign (2017) and Farnan (2020).

It might be thought that 1100 metres is a short spring, but when the race debuted in 1963, it was a mere 800 metres. Beginning in 1970, it was stretched to 1000 metres, but then reverted to 800 metres for the races staged in 1971 and 1972. It jumped 11 times as a 900-metre trip before moving to the current distance of 1100 metres in 1984.

It was graded as a Principal race until the Group classification series made it a Group 2 race in 1979, when the new system was being deployed.

It has always jumped at Rosehill, except for the year of 1991, when it was move to Canterbury Park for the one year.

Venue for the Silver Slipper Stakes

Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney opened in 1885. The current owners and operators of the facility is the Australian Turf Club, the entity created in 2011 by the merger between the Sydney Turf Club and the Australian Jockey Club.

Over the course of a year, Rosehill plays host to nine Group 1 races, including elite legacy races such as the Coolmore Classic and the Ranvet Stakes. The Golden Slipper Stakes is one of the key races held at Rosehill.

There are 13 Group 2 races and 14 Group 3 races at Rosehill, as of early 2023.

All the metro venues, it seems, now need to have a super big-money race on the calendar. Rosehill’s is the Iron Jack Golden Eagle (1500 m) that has a prizemoney pool of $10 million.

The course is another of those egg-shaped triangles with one sweeping turn and two tighter ones. For 1100-metre races, the gallopers start about mid-back straight, run the sweeping turn on the south extremity, and then head for the 408-metre home straight to the finishing post on the west side of the track.

Racing History of the Silver Slipper Stakes

Some two-year-olds that went on to enjoy better careers have won the Silver Slipper Stakes. We will, per usual, be looking for big earners, Group 1 winners and stallions and mares that contributed to racing in the form of successful progeny.

The first winner in 1963 was Eskimo Prince. He won the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes that same year, so the wait time for the silver/gold double was zero.

The sport of kings was paying like the sport of peasants in that era. Eskimo Prince mad 18 jumps, won half of those starts, and placed in five races, yet managed to win only $53,000.

He had Todman for a sire and Star Kingdom for a grandsire, a lineage we find often when looking at the better racers.

Eskimo Prince won major races, including the Hill Stakes, Breeders’ Plate, Sires’ Produce Stakes, Rosehill Guineas and Canterbury Stakes.

Just because it is fun, we looked at those five races in the previous sentence and added their prizemoney to the Silver and Golden Slipper Stakes prizemoney.

If Eskimo Prince would have won any of those races, one race alone would far exceed his career earnings and if he had won all of them in 2022, he would have earned well above $5 million, or almost 100 times what he collected for when he was racing.

Surprisingly, while he supplied about 39 foals, none of those came close to him in terms of racing accomplishments.

The first filly to win was 1965’s Very Merry.

Next came a filly by Todman named Tod Maid.

We find a true great in the 1969 winner, Baugette.

Star Kingdom was the sire of Baguette’s dam, Dark Jewel.

Like Eskimo Prince, Baguette worked hard for very little money. He made 31 jumps for 15 wins and 11 placings for a paltry $195,000.

He won the Golden Slipper the AJC Sires’ Produce, Champagne Stakes and Newmarket Handicap between 1970 – 71.

He won other major races, including the Champagne Stakes and the Doomben 10,000, but that only makes us more depressed when we consider what kind of money gallopers of far lesser quality can make for finishing high in one of the races Baguette won.

After racing, Baguette was a productive sire, but none of his offspring seems to have made much racing impact.

The next notable winner and the second to win the Silver Slipper – Golden Slipper double was 1976 winner Luskin Star.

This Australian Racing Hall of Fame stallion won the Australian two-year-old Triple Crown and he won 13 of his 17 jumps, with three second place finishes. Thankfully, that one unplaced run did not earn Luskin Star a visit from the Emasculator.

From 1976 through 1978, he won a total of 10 major races five races now graded at Group 1.

His progeny included three Group 1 winners, with a million-dollar galloper named Bold Promise, and a slew of horses that won above-and-high-six-figure incomes.

The 1981 winner, Vaindarra, deserves mention for being the daughter of Vain.

The 1986 winner was Maizcay.

He was a decent racer, but he was an exceptional stallion.

His million-dollar earners were Seascay and Our Maizcay, with many of his other offspring earning various amounts of prizemoney.

The 1989 winner was Triscay.

We recently encountered Triscay when we were writing about the Group 3 Triscay Stakes. If she was good enough to deserve a race named for her, she is more than good enough for us.

She had Group 1 wins in the AJC Oaks and the Queensland Guineas in 1991.

Her 10 foals, by the likes of such as Last Tycoon, Danehill, Redoute’s Choice and others of that cloth produced seven stakes winners.

Another good one was 1994’s Strategic.

A sprinter by Zeditave out of Sudden Impulse, Strategic made 18 jumps for 7 wins and 4 placings. He earned over $650,000, with a Group 1 win in the William Reid Stakes and other high finishes in major races.

At stud, he supplied Mistegic, Platelet and Fair Embrace, all of which earned above $1 million.

We acknowledge that from this point forward, we are skipping some better types to conserve space for the recent winners.

The next true notable on the list of winners of the Silver Slipper Stakes is 2012’s Pierro.

How good was Pierro?

He made only 14 jumps for 11 wins and 3 placings and amassed more than $4.5 million.

His sire was Lonhro, so he had the genes to race. The Silver Slipper Stakes was his first Group grade win, after which came the Group 2 Todman Stakes, followed by the Group 1 Golden Slipper. Two more consecutive Group 1 wins came in the Sires’ Produce Stakes and the Champagne Stakes.

Near the end of his career, he won three straight, with victories in the Group 2 Hobartville, the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes and the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes. His last race was a second in the Doncaster Handicap. He beat some top racers, including More Joyous, Rebel Dane, All Too Hard, Snitzerland and Epaulette.

He supplied racing with seven horses that won above $1 million, including Regal Power ($4.5 million) and Arcadia Queen ($3.9 million).

Next came Sweet Idea in 2013.

A 2010 mare by Snitzel, she won over $4 million for 19 jumps for 8 wins and 8 placings. Her major wins were at Group 2 grade, but she made the top of the podium when she took out The Galaxy for a Group 1 win in 2015.

She has supplied foals to Dubawi and Galileo (2x), but none of the three, foaled between 2018 and 2020, have made an impression as of yet.

It pains us, but we are skipping three better sorts, Mossfun (2014), Headwater (2015) and Astern (2016) to examine the 2017 winner, She Will Reign.

She won above $3 million from 12 jumps for 6 wins and 1 placing.

After filling the Silver – Golden Slipper double, she nosed Viddora to win the Group 1 A J Moir Stakes. She was sent to the northern hemisphere to stand. A 2020 colt by Heart’s Cry is racing in Japan, earning lots of yen.

She Will Reign was followed by Sunlight in 2018.

She was by Zoustar from Solar Charged. She made 24 jumps for 11 wins and 8 placings to earn above $6.5 million. She won the Magic Million 2YO Classic in 2018 and had three Group 1 wins in the Coolmore Stud (2018), the Newmarket Handicap (2019) and the William Reid Stakes (2019) and was declared the Australian Champion Three Year Old Filly for the 2018 – 19 racing season.

She gave birth to a colt by the American Triple Crown winner, Justify, in 2021. She fetched $4.2 million at the Magic Million Broodmare sale in 2020.

Farnan by Not A Single Doubt won the Silver Slipper Stakes in 2020.

He was sent to the breeding sheds after just eight jumps for five wins and zero placings. His stakes earnings were above $2.5 million.

The winner in 2021 was another better type, Home Affairs.

Now four, he was sent to stud after 10 jumps for 4 wins and 2 placings and about $2.3 million in prizemoney.

He foaled in 2018 by I Am Invincible out of Miss Interiors.

Group 1 wins by Home Affairs include the Coolmore Stud and the Lightning Stakes.

Conclusion

The Silver Slipper Stakes attracts the top class of two-year-olds.

Only seven gallopers have won the Silver/Golden Slipper double, but other tips have come close.

The race will continue to serve as an introduction to racing fans of the better two-year-olds and many of the winners have gone on to win more.

Almost as often, the winners have been taken off the turf to protect them for stud service. The best can generate far more from the earnings of their offspring than they could from racing.

Silver Slipper Stakes Past Winners