It's here - it's Slippertime! After the obligatory weeks and months of speculation, the form reversals, forlorn pre-post betting hunches gone wrong and a few sudden revelations of brilliance - the 2026 Golden Slipper field is assembled and we are all set to go.
As we have all observed, there is no real standout two year old that has come to the fore this season.
That doesn't mean a future champion isn't lurking, or a future great sire or broodmare. But at this age and stage of their careers, they seem a pretty even bunch.
So luck in running will play an even bigger role than it usually does. Bjorn Baker's glamour colts and longtime spruik horses Warwoven ( Sword Of State) and Paradoxium ( Extreme Choice) have drawn less than ideally, but both arrive in winning form - and if good enough you'd think at least one of them will get their chance to win.
The general consensus is that the Melbourne form looks particularly good in 2026. The tough and feisty Blue Diamond heroine Streisand is here, but the filly who made up a stack of ground behind her that day then romped in the Riesling is the Slipper favourite Chayan ( I Am Invincible).
Blue Diamond runner up Closer To Free ( Street Boss) has drawn awfully but has undeniable claims and won a trial here on soft recently.
Unlucky Diamond third Guest House (Home Affairs) has any amount of talent and has had some excuses in two defeats - but can't afford to put a hoof wrong if he's to get into the finish here!
Diamond fourth Zambales (Pinatubo) , the beautifully bred half-brother to superstar Tempted, was runner up in the VRC Sires and will be strong at the end of this helter skelter sprint. He didn't win the Sires though - he's still a maiden, albeit a super talented one.
Stretan Ruler ( Wild Ruler)was awesome in bolting in the Silver Slipper and is yet to run a bad race,
Then there's Apocalyptic's kid brother Hidrix - the stunning grey raced upside down in blinkers when unplaced to Paradoxium - the shades come off and he's drawn the coveted rail.
Inglis Millenium winner Fireball (Snitzel) comes in without the glamour formline, but he beat good horses there - then raced wide and stuck to his guns in the Skyline. Waller +J-Mac + Snitzel + blinkers and he's a professional minded colt.
Skyline victor Campione D'Italia is another Waller- trained Snitzel with genuine claims at double figure odds. He defeated Central Europe there, the Frankel colt who was Slipper favourite for about five minutes.
Then we've got the Sweet Embrace winner Spicy Miss ( Trapeze Artist), the all the way Magic Night winner Pembrey ( Prague) and Shiki - a Too Darn Hot filly and early Golden Slipper boom horse with a formline that has cooled.
The bolters of the field are the Black Opal winner and pride of Canberra Music Time ( All Too Hard) who is a genuinely nice horse - and Incognito (Stay Inside) who has definitely gone undercover after his debut Breeders Plate win - but keeps running on and running good times.
His sire won the Slipper on a slow track ( beating Anamoe, to whom he had run fourth in the Todman) and with rain expected, connections will be hoping for an exact repeat of that scenario for their $1 million dollar colt!
Ah yes, the weather forecast. It's not very helpful. There will be rain, the Bureau says - but It could be 10mm or 50mm. Such totals could fall on Thursday and Friday, or not at all. It may rain on Saturday, it may not. Seriously, why are we even bothering with a forecast?
We do know it will be humid with little in the way of drying wind.
I have guesstimated a Soft 6 /7 scenario but it’s all in the lap of the gods as they push those storm clouds around at whim!
So, the road to the 2026 Golden Slipper reaches its end. Let’s enjoy this intoxicating annual spectacle of sixteen magnificent young thoroughbreds thundering towards equine Nirvana - and a place in Australian turf history.
My best guess:
Top Pick: GUEST HOUSE
I love that Mick Price gives such honest assessments of his horses, even though it can be anxiety-inducing if you’re backing them.
He freely admits that Guest House is aiming for a second peak here, and while he believes his star colt is thriving and absolutely ready for it, he doesn’t shy away from the uncertainty factor.
Mick tells us Guest House has improved out of sight in the racing manners department. The lack of which have conspired, along with a little bad luck, to cost him.
He was lunging at the line late when third in the Blue Diamond, he was fantastic before that in the Prelude after everything went wrong.
I’ve got this colt on top, because I think he is among the classiest of horses in the race. His pedigree screams Slipper, and he's nice and fresh where some have toiled pretty hard to make it into the field.
Sire Home Affairs is by Vinnie out of a mare by one of the great Slipper winners Flying Spur, and is inbred to his family. Home Affairs was unplaced in his own Slipper, but then so was Snitzel!
Damsire Stratum won the Slipper, second damsire Snowland was a brilliant two year old and Guest House is bred x 2 to two of the legendary Slipper winners Vain and Canny Lad.
The Price/ Kent trained Guest House was a $270,000 MM Gold Coast purchase for Mick Price Racing and Breeding / Roll The Dice Racing / Rogers Bloodstock, from the draft of Newgate Farm.
He is the sixth foal from the dual stakes placed Stratum mare Flamboyant Lass (placed in the G2 BD Prelude at two) Every foal a winner!
Her first was the Maribyrnong Plate runner up Nitrous ( by Deep Field exp HK where he raced successfully)
Then came the 6 x winner Command Approved ( Spirit Of Boom), daughter Lovebird ( by Home Affair's sire I Am Invincible) an $850,000 yearling and winner in just four starts, plus sons by Pierro and Capitalist who have both won races.
The mare produced a 2024 filly by Stay Inside, missed to him in 2025 and was then covered by Storm Boy.
Her dam Flamboyance placed six times in fourteen race starts without winning but as a rare daughter of the brilliant but fertility challenged Snippets son Snowland she had precious value as a broodmare - and lived up to that promise with the full brother to Flamboyance, Attention winning the G2 BRC Sires Produce the best among her five winners.
This is the family of the Vain mare Vain Deb, dam of the tough and talented Pasikatera ( five stakes wins, black type producer), and stakes placed Dance With Deb (died at four)
It's the tribe of the US- bred Gooree Park import Palm Beach Deb by Buckpasser's stakes winning son Akureyi (half brother to G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner and Blue Hen Awaasif, grand dam of the legendary Arc winner Lammtarra)
The damline of Guest House goes back to the Menow daughter Dynamo ( family 8-c) the ancestress of champion racer and sire Majestic Light, descending from Cherokee Rose II - also ancestress of Storm Cat, Royal Academy, Be My Guest, Jaipur, Earthlight, Shadow Of Light, Venetian Sun etc etc
This family produces great two year olds!
Guest House is bred
Danehill x 4m x 4m
Danzig 5m,5m x 5m,6m
Canny Lad 4f x 5f
Vain x 5f,4f
There's a lot of great things going on in the pedigree of Guest House but there are a few eye catching factors that pedigree nerds will find particularly satisfying.
Firstly the nick between Stravinsky's dam Fire The Groom by Blushing Groom and the colt's fifth dam Morning Bird by the mighty Swaps, His sire Khaled is from the family of Blushing Groom, while her dam Beguiling is a very close relation of Blushing Groom's sire Red God.
Swaps is also closely related to I Am Invincible's tail male ancestor Green Desert.
Green Desert descends from Tulle by War Admiral out of Judy Rae ( Beau Pere x Betty Derr) while the dam of Swaps, Iron Reward s by Beau Pere out of Iron Maiden ( War Admiral x Betty Derr)
This ties in with the duplicated Canny Lad who sex balances these lines - his sire Bletchingly is out of a daughter of Relic by War Relic and dam Jesmond Lass carries Beau Pere son Beau Cheval.
Red God and Beguiling were by Nasrullah out of Menow daughters and on both sides of the pedigree this is reinforced by Menow's grandson Buckpasser by Tom Fool - also the tail male ancestor of Snippets.
Fourth damsire Akureyri and damsire Stratum both reinforce the 22 family / Djebel cross that is found in Fire The Groom. Home Affairs carries a double of Wild Risk on his damline, not only strong in the 22 blood but sex balancing Ksar, Djebel’s grandsire - and one of these lines comes through Le Fabuleux - who is a relative of Vain's sire Wikes.
Meanwhile the Mr Prospector son Miswaki is key, sex balancing that sire as carried by Blue Hen Rolls through her close relation Exigent, the third dam of Home Affairs, both grand daughters of the great matriarch Fanfreluche. Fire The Groom also descends from a Mr Prospector mare.
The dam of Guest House has no Mr Prospector blood so this is a dynamic introduction for her. She does have a daughter of Buckpasser through the Danzig son Polish Precedent, thus replicating the same cross carried by Danehill, and Miswaki is out of a Buckpasser mare - so that sex balancing line to his son Akureyri is very important!
This pedigree also creates sex balanced linebreeding to Blue Hen Thong through her son Thatch and his full sister Special, the dam of Nureyev.
And so it goes on. What a brilliant pedigree. Guest House gets a crossover noseband on and he will be ridden for the first time by young gun Zac Lloyd ( who jumps off the Sweet Embrace winner Spicy Miss), having been partnered in all three of his starts to date by Jamie Melham.
There are those horses that prefer a male jockey - just as some will always go better for a female and most don't mind either way. It might just make a difference to Guest House.
Barring scratchings, Guest House and Zac jump from barrier 8 - last winner Sepoy in 2011.
Next Best: CHAYAN
This I Am Invincible filly ran out of her skin on debut to finish runner up to Streisand in the Prelude, then was great again making up a stack of ground in the Blue Diamond when second up off a wide run.
She then showed her liking for the Sydney way of going with a facile three length demolition job in the Reisling Stakes and comes to the Slipper at her fourth race start.
Chayan's half sister by Zoustar, offered by Ridgeport Holdings, sold for $525,000 at the recent Perth MM Sale to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock.
This was a great result for her breeder Ridgeport as they purchased the dam Lubiton, in foal to Zoustar, for $400,000 from the 2024 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale - and the deeds of Chayan on the track are adding big $$ to the value of her foals to come!
The Snitzel daughter Lubiton had no foal last year after missing to Brave Smash, but is now safely back in foal to “Vinnie”.
Chayan was a $250,000 MM Gold Coast purchase from the draft of Longwood Thoroughbred Farm (AA) for Eric Koh / Falcon Racing, and is trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald.
She is the fourth foal and first black type earner from her G3 Tesio Stakes winning dam - whose first two to race are both winners.
I Am Invincible's best 2YO performers are out of mares with big Classic genes - Galileo, Zabeel, Sunday Silence - and he gets that here.
But he also gets Snitzel, and when is that ever not going to be a major advantage when we get to these high pressure G1 juvenile contests - especially when they are run on wet tracks! Snitzel x Rubiton produced Everest legend and noted wet tracker Redzel.
Lubiton was one of only three foals and the only progeny to see a racetrack from the unraced Zabeel mare Rosa Stellata, in turn a daughter of the fantastic racemare Camino Rose by Sea Road.
That tough girl started her career in Brisbane and won five races at two - and trained on to win the G1 Coolmore Classic / Queen Of The Turf double - having placed in both the previous year! She also won the Tristarc Stakes at Caulfield.
Camino Rose was the best runner sired by Whiskey Road's G3 winning son Sea Road, a good sire but a far better broodmare sire - that suggests his superstar Camino Rose packs a nice genetic punch there as the third dam of Chayan.
Chayan's unraced fourth dam Monarose was by the Tudor Minstrel line speedsire Lord Silver Man - a member of the famed stallion making Manto family whose current star is Written Tycoon.
This is the immediate family of stakes winning sprinters Hard To Catch and Perth galloper Fabergino who won at G2 level in Melbourne and was fourth in a G1 Lightning Stakes.
It descends from the Todman daughter Ashton Lass and goes back to the AJC Oaks winner Crossfire (7-d).
Many great racehorses descended from Crossfire, one being Manikato's grandsire Matrice. Another branch of this family gives us the fastest horse on the planet, Ka Ying Rising!
Chayan is bred
Danzig 4m, x 5m
Canny Lad 3f x 5f
Lunchtime 5f x 7f, 5m sex balanced
Sir Ivor 5f x 7f , 5m sex balanced
Apart from the obvious, a more obscure and lovely nick is that Lord SIlver Man descends from a daughter of Beau Pere's Cox Plate winning champion Beau Vite, and Canny Lad carries Beau Cheval out of NZ's legendary racemare Cuddle - both sires were out of mares by the famous Martian.
Green Desert and Whiskey Road descend from daughters of Beau Pere.
Artaius and Sir Tristram duplicate the Round Table / My Babu cross, the latter sex balanced by Milesian.
It's a seriously power packed filly pedigree with speed and stamina in balance.
Barring scratchings, current Slipper favourite Chayan and new jockey Willo will jump from barrier 10 - its last winner was Danzero back in 1994.
Roughie: STRETAN RULER
The way Stretan Ruler won the Silver Slipper was simply brilliant.
I'm hoping the track doesn't go below a Soft 6 for him, but I reckon the son of Wild Ruler is a great chance even if it does. He was narrowly defeated on debut in the Merson Cooper Stakes on a Soft 7.
Scratched from the Blue Diamond after drawing a hopeless barrier, the Phillip Stokes trained colt has thrived in Sydney and will be primed to produce his best after a good second in the Todman Stakes.
“Plan B” might have a Golden outcome for Stokes ( who saddles up his first ever Slipper runner!) and a big group of excited connections.
Stretan Ruler was a $220,000 Inglis Easter purchase from Willow Park Stud for Stokes Racing / Suman Hedge Bloodstock and he doesn't lack for high profile relations - he's a half brother to glamour mare Stretan Angel ( Harry Angel), also trained by Stokes - a multiple Group winning sprinter of more than $1.2 million.
She and Stretan Ruler were bred by Cheval Properties Pty Ltd T/A Kirks Bridge Farm, and the colt is the fourth winner from five to race from their Bernardini (USA) mare Sretan.
The current yearling from Sretan is a colt by Harry Angel that made $540,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale for Kirks Bridge Farm when bought by Equine Growth Fund / Blueblood Thoroughbreds / SP Bloodstock.
Another daughter by “Harry” followed and Stretan was then covered by European HOTY City of Troy (USA) in his first season at Coolmore Australia.
The dam of Stretan is the stakes winning Pure Joy, by the Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, who has left the legacy that was expected of him (though “Fu Peg” had his detractors) via his daughters.
Pure Joy produced only three fillies. Her daughter Alegria was dam of the tough and talented G2 /3 winning stayer Alegron ( Medaglia D'Oro)
Stretan Ruler's third dam was the winning Angelic Ruler by mighty Dehere who is often a presence in top two year old pedigrees. Pure Joy was her only filly to win a stakes race, but she also foaled the excellent dual G2 winning sprinter Fravashi ( exp UAE) to Falbrav and was herself a daughter of the NZ bred stakes producer Serene Look by Seattle Slew's half brother by Nijinsky - Seattle Dancer.
Serene Look's daughter Listed winning daughter Custard (Lonhro) became a grand producer for Segenhoe Stud with three stakes winners - one of them the filly Serene Dancer (Fastnet Rock) is breeding on successfully for Neil Werrett, while Segenhoe retain her sweetly named daughters Brulee (Hinchinbrook) Panna Cotta (Fastnet Rock) and Yarraman Park own Cannoli (Vinnie)
This high class damline goes back to the French-bred Alycidon mare La Marsellaise II through her daughter Cake by Never Say Die. To the cover of Prince Tenderfoot, Cake produced the full sisters Icing and Molokai
Icing became the dam of dual G1 winning colt and good sire Al Hareb, and of Snowtop ( Grand dam of crack juveniles Portillo, Snowland and Snippetson and of the excellent sire Myboycharlie, and of SW Adelong, Ghisoni, Arctic Command, Snow Alert,etc) Molokai is Stretan Ruler’s ancestress.
This branch of family 13-e descends from Ballisland, Champion European 2YO Filly of 1948.
This colt has a fascinating pedigree
Stretan Ruler is bred
Danzig 5m x 5f sex balanced
Deputy Minister 5m x 5m
He is the first stakes winner for Newgate Farm’s GI winning Snitzel stallion Wild Ruler, who was bred by Kia Ora Stud from the excellent US sprinting mare Gypsy Robin (Daaher) from a branch of family10 which stems from the same taproot mare as that of the matriarch of most of family10, Queen Mary.
She is the ancestress of both Deputy Minister and his sire Vice Regent - Dehere is very inbred to this family, as is Wild Ruler's third damsire Seattle Song. One of the most influential of all Queen Mary's descendants was Prince Rose, the sire of Princequillo - and he is a huge presence in this colt's pedigree.
Stretan Ruler is linebred to Seattle Slew via sons Seattle Song (close relation of Unbridled's Song) and A.P Indy, with a line to half brother Seattle Dancer and sex balances of Slew's close relation Mr Prospector.
Northern Dancer, Danzig, Never Bend, Grey Sovereign and Raise A Native are also sex balanced.
Stretan Ruler is linebred to Princequillo's Blue Hen Somethingroyal primarily, but also to Cequillo and sex balanced by sons Round Table and Prince Blessed.
Particularly good nicks for Snitzel comes through linebreeding to Blue Hen Grey Flight via her daughter Bold Princess by Bold Ruler, dam of Sovereign Dancer - and three quarter brother Misty Day the second damsire of Snippets, along with sex balance of Blue Hen Striking through the full brother and sister Hitting Away ( third damsire Snippets) and Bases Full carried by Wild Ruler's damsire Daaher. Striking and her full sister Busher appear in Seattle Slew, Busher's‘s full brother is carried by Redoute's Choice.
More La Troienne than you can shake a stick at and I haven't even got to so much more that is going on in this pedigree. It certainly looks more than Slipper-worthy to this pedigree nerd!
Barring scratchings, Stretan Ruler and Chad Scofield jump from gate 11 - last winner was She Will Reign 2017.
Blowout: FIREBALL
Waller deploys Fireball, who gets the blinkers on and J Mac jumping aboard. While he doesn't have the G1 formline, he beat good horses in the Inglis Millenium, he is tough, professional and very well bred.
Fireball is bred on the same Snitzel / Charge Forward cross as Slipper heroine Estijaab, while other Red Ransom crosses resulted in dual G1 hero Trapeze Artist and top juvenile Chance Bye.
Charge Forward is also the damsire of last season's G1 Winterbottom Stakes hero Libertad (by Snitzel son Russian Revolution), who was a G3 winner from only two starts as a juvenile, and of Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign ( that was a wet Slipper) and the champion filly Sunlight.
With his sire and damsire both superior wet track influences, I reckon Fireball will be loving the sound of rain on his stable roof.
A lovely strong son of the much missed Arrowfield legend, Fireball was a $460,000 Inglis Easter purchase for James Harron Bloodstock Colt Partnership / Tony Fung Colts from the Yarraman Park draft.
He is the second foal and first to race from the Charge Forward mare Advance Party (winner at two).
Despite the promise shown by Fireball, Advance Party's Dundeel filly sold for a fairly modest $150,000 at Inglis Classic from Yarraman Park to O'Brien Thoroughbreds ( Australia). Won't that be looking like a good buy if she's a half sister to a Slipper winner!
Advance Party has a 2025 filly by Maurice and was then covered by In The Congo.
Fireball's second dam is the unraced Redoutes daughter Luanne, dam of three to race all winners. She is a half sister to the 2YO stakes winning filly I Have No Fear (Rock Of Gibraltar), the best winner from five of them produced by the Widden / Sweet Embrace / Magic Night heroine Countess Christie (Marscay)
Fireball's USA - bred fourth dam was the very good juvenile, Brilliantdeduction (Capote) and her dam My Dear Plum won four races at two and had eleven foals, all winners.
This running family is also that of the fine racemare Girl Hussler who is the dam of G1 CF Orr Stakes winning sprinter Manuel and HK G1 placed Sun Patch / Computer Patch. They descend through a Snippets mare from the stakes winning juvenile Clever Zoe who placed in a G1 Lightning Stakes.
Clever Zoe was out of a half sister to Fireball’s fourth dam Brilliantdeduction.
The family descends from the highly inbred mare Lizzie G, foaled in New Orleans in 1867!
Fireball descends from her through Alice Gray, a full sister to Mannie Gray who became the dam of the legendary Domino - “The Black Whirlwind” - who sired only 19 foals! Seven of them were stakes winners. Domino became a true breedshaper through his sons Commando and Disguise, and through the produce of his daughters in High Time, Sweep and Ultimus.
His full sister the champion sprint mare Correction became the taproot mare of family 23-b and this blood is very prominent in Snitzel's dam Snippets’ Lass.
Fireball is bred
Redoute's Choice 2m x 3f sex balanced
Bletchingly 5m x 4f sex balanced
Northern Dancer 5m,5m x
Biscay x 5m,5m
A great feature of Fireball's pedigree is his linebreeding to the great speedsire In Reality and again that's a case of the wetter the better.
Snitzel x Charge Forward sex balances In Reality - and just for good measure Fireball's fifth dam My Dear Plum was sired by Royal Intent - a son of In Reality's sire Intentionally.
Barring scratchings, Fireball and J Mac will launch from barrier 5 - last winner Lady Of Camelot in 2024.
