When Guest House headed to the Magic Millions Yearling Sale in the Newgate Farm draft in 2025, he was a nice colt, but certainly nothing special, a solid middle of the road fellow, but in winning the Golden Slipper he’s shot to the top of the class, so let’s take a closer look at what the stallion syndicates failed to see.
Newgate were the leading vendor by aggregate at Magic Millions 2025 selling 53 yearlings for $18,575,000 with a top price in their draft of $1.7million for a Snitzel colt from Fashion Faux Pas (USA).
The average price for yearling sold in their draft was $350,472, which tells you pretty much where Guest House fit into their picture given he sold for $270,000.
22 yearlings in that draft sold for less than him and 30 sold for more.
It's worth watching the video as the last graphic highlights Newgate having raised two of the last four Slipper winners - Lady of Camelot and Stay Inside - and now they can amend that to having raised three of the last six!
Looking at the picture from a Home Affairs perspective, the Coolmore young gun sired the sale-topper at the Gold Coast when his filly from Sunlight made $3.2million and he had 47 yearlings in total average $383,298.
Again, Guest House fit somewhere just south of the middle and if you click on this link you can see the full list of Home Affairs yearlings sold at MM 2025 with images, so you can see what average looked like as opposed to expensive.
He was purchased by Mick Price Racing & Breeding Pty Ltd/Roll The Dice Racing/Rogers Bloodstock and has now banked $3.3million for his big ownership group.
On the pedigree front, Guest House was also somewhere in the middle being the sixth foal of Flamboyant Lass, a very fast Group placed daughter of Golden Slipper winning sire Stratum from an old Gooree Stud family.
At the time of the sale she had five foals to race for three winners and now she is six for six, although Guest House is her first stakes-winner.
Back in the day, Mr Cojuangco made a habit of bringing out mares from North America to add to his Aussie broodmare band at Gooree Stud and one of those was Palm Beach Deb (USA), who smashed it out of the park when her ninth foal was Tempest Morn.
A tiny chestnut with the heart of a tiger, she won the Group I SAJC Australasian Oaks and STC Ansett Australia Stakes (now the Vinery) and was also second in the G1 AJC Australian Oaks, Queensland Derby, Queensland Oaks and South Australian Oaks.
The third dam of Guest House is Vain Deb, a useless half-sister by Golden Slipper winner Vain to Tempest Morn that duly made her mark at stud producing six winners headed by the classy G3 winner Pasikatera.
These names are all dear to my heart given they were trained by Gai Waterhouse during the era when I was a part of that team and there was a morning that still sticks in my mind all these years later.
I went out to gallop Tempest Morn on the course proper during that memorable autumn when she was a superstar and thought to myself, this job does not get any better than this!
Here we are 25 years later and this family has smashed it out of the park again with a colt whose pedigree is packed with Golden Slipper influences.
Guest House has a double cross of Golden Slipper winning sires Vain and Canny Lad and we can also throw in three more Slipper winning sires Stratum, Flying Spur and Luskin Star to the mix.
He also has a 4 x 4 double cross of Danehill, who sired a Golden Slipper winner in each of his first three crops – Danzero, Flying Spur and Merlene – and then added two more in Catbird and Ha Ha.
Every racing nation has an iconic race for the breeding purist and the winner of the race invariably has a pedigree offering a history lesson in past winners and while the UK has the Epsom Derby and the USA has their Kentucky Derby, for Australia it is undoubtedly the Golden Slipper.
