FOR pedigree buffs, the Golden Slipper Stakes – the richest race in the world for two-year-olds and worth a whopping $3.5 million –always holds appeal and is likely to decide the champion Australian sire for two-year-olds this season. If indeed the winner of the 1200 metres scamper, its 2018 renewal to run at Rosehill this Saturday, is by a first crop sire, then the sire is also likely of taking Australia’s first crop sires’ title as there is no other juvenile race this season that carries such a massive prize.
Not only does the race contain juveniles by renowned champion Australian sires Fastnet Rock, Exceed and Excel, Snitzel and Lonhro, but it also includes representatives of both Yarraman Park’s stallions I Am Invincible and Hinchinbrook, as well as horses by first crop sires Zoustar, Sizzling, and Spirit of Boom.
Winner of the $2m Magic Millions Two-Year-Old, as well as last Saturday’s ATC Magic Night Stakes-G3, Sunlight is the favourite and is by Widden Stud’s Zoustar.
Other favoured entries include VRC Blue Diamond Stakes-G1 and ATC Pago Pago Stakes-G3 winning colt Written By (by Victorian based Written Tycoon) and Snitzel competitor Estijaab, a filly who cost her owners His Excellency Nasser Lootah of Emirates Park, Murrurundi, $1.7m at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Canberra has a representative with Sizzling filly Sizzling Belle and is trained in the national capital by Nick Olive (also conditioner of tough mare Single Gaze).
Speedy gelding, Ef Troop finished a head second in the ATC Todman Stakes-G2 at Randwick two weeks ago. He will represent Queensland, bred and trained, and is by this season’s first crop “hot” sire for winners Spirit Of Boom, who stands at the McAlpine family’s long established Eureka Stud at Cambooya.
Bred by the McAlpine family, the $2.4m earner Spirit Of Boom keeps a door open for the Forli sireline branch of the great Hyperion. A grandson of Hyperion, the Argentinean bred Forli met with huge stud success in North America and Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Irish bred Rustic Amber (who stood the majority of this Victorian stud life at Ealing Park and High Lane Farm at Euroa), sired six times Melbourne stakes winner Sequalo (a deceased champion Queensland sire who stood at Lyndhurst Stud, Warwick) sire of Spirit Of Boom. Winner of the Todman Stakes was Aylmerton, trained by Frenchman Jean Dubois at Goulburn and is a winner of his only two starts.
The bay colt is a rare horse racing in Australia by Siyouni, a French Group 1 winner who stands at the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval stud in France.
Merv Corliss passes
THE Tamworth district farewelled Merv Corliss last month when the 93-year-old former well-known conditioner and horseman passed away.
Among the leading trainers in the north-western region for more than 50 years, Mr Corliss trained numerous talented racehorses none more renowned then Akwazoff, who won a remarkable 16 country cups often carrying huge weights during the 1990s. This included the 1997 Grafton Cup, a race he also finished with two other thirds.
A son of the US bred import Zoffany (by Our Native), Akwazoff (bred by Neil and Mia Latimer of Manilla) started 136 times for 36 wins, 17 seconds, 14 thirds and $500,000.
Other notable winners prepared by Mr Corliss included Switch In Time gelding Steelswitch (132 starts, 34 wins, 25 seconds, 17 thirds and $236,118); and Victory Charm (by Fairy King US bred Victory Note, 80 starts, 12 wins, and 19 placings).
Mr Corliss’ daughter Lesley Jeffriess is carrying on her father’s tradition by successfully training at Tamworth. Glenbarra Boy, winner of the Warialda Cup in 2010, was Mr Corliess’ last winner.
Winner of the $2m Magic Millions two-year-Ood, as well as last Saturday’s ATC Magic Night Stakes-G3, Sunlight is the favourite.
