Wodeton has edge in Golden Slipper
This year's Golden Slipper is a wide open race, as echoed by the generous 4-1 odds of the favourite Wodeton.
But factoring in a few known facts about the idiosyncratic Australian 2YO feature can help narrow down the shortlist on March 22.
With a capacity field of 16 high-on-energy juveniles going helter-skelter at the start of the 1,200m journey at Rosehill, predicting the speedmap can be a tricky affair.
However, a couple of trends do help sort the wheat from the chaff in the world's richest 2YO race at A$5 million (S$4.2 million).
It turns out that the current batch of two-year-olds have already revealed where they settle and what their patterns are.
It is one of the most important races to get the speedmap right, because these youngsters are so evenly matched that those backmarkers may not be good enough to overcome such a huge obstacle.
For that matter, the Golden Slipper has tended over the years to favour these horses who get the right run just behind the speed.
However, Wodeton was costly at his last start as the beaten even-money favourite in the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1,200m) at Randwick on March 8.
The Coolmore colt had every chance when he hit the front but the fast-finishing Tentyris (Nash Rawiller) - who pulled up lame, ruling himself out of the Slipper - finished ahead of him.
As a horse who tends to overdo things a touch, that might have dulled his finish in the Todman.
The addition of winkers is significant as well as the inside gate in barrier No. 2, from where James McDonald will look to get him to relax and conserve for that last assault inside the last furlong.
After he travelled like the winner in the Todman and just ran out of carrots in the last 50m, trainer Chris Waller has said he would like the Wootton Bassett colt to be ridden a touch more conservatively in the Slipper.
Even if the one-time winner is drawn to get the right run, he will probably be ridden a pair further back. All in all, he should improve from the Todman run.
The race named after the first Golden Slipper winner in 1957 has produced four of the past 10 Golden Slipper winners.
Even if Wodeton did not win, the lead-up race has also provided the key form reference.
Another handy prelude race is the Group 2 Reisling Stakes at Randwick on March 8, won by Godolphin's Tempted in a fast-run 1,200m, which is likely to be replicated in the Golden Slipper.
The Street Boss filly was suited by the pressure, and really hit the line from a long way back. From barrier No. 1 on March 22, she can park up closer for Blake Shinn.
In the Reisling, she beat Marhoona, who was having just her second career start, but she did well to absorb that pressure and still fight out the finish.
The Snitzel filly was by far the best of the on-speed survivors and was brave in defeat.
Sporting the Golden Slipper-winning silks of Emirates Park (Mossfun in 2014, Estijaab in 2018), Marhoona is trained by former Kranji trainer Michael Freedman.
Already a noted handler of juveniles with Super One in Singapore, the Australian has kept up that outstanding record when he went back to Sydney to train.
Besides winning the Slipper as part of the Freedman brothers four years in a row (1993 to 1996), he also claimed it with brother Richard with Stay Inside in 2021.
In Marhoona, who will be ridden by big-race jockey Damian Lane, Freedman has a value runner who has come through a fast-run 1,200m and should get the right run in the slipstream.
manyan@sph.com.sg
