We could be wrong, but we’re pretty sure we’re right!
Last week on our Tara Talks Racing podcast we had Henry Field as a guest and when the chat cast back to the days when we both worked for Gai Waterhouse the topic of Golden Slipper winner Ha Ha came up.
Ha Ha led home the historic Gai Waterhouse trained Golden Slipper trifecta in 2001 beating Excellerator and Red Hannigan.
In the lead up to that Slipper, I was doing all the riding of Excellerator as he was a big gelding by Marscay that was battling shin-soreness and Gai wanted to keep the lightest work rider as possible on him to get him to that race which was me.
I admired Ha Ha from afar, but had seldom ridden her and then in her three year-old season she landed as one of my regular rides and that lasted right up until I fell pregnant and retired from the track.
While some top fillies can be tricky to deal with, Ha Ha was the complete opposite.
She was a calm and gentle soul that was happy to oblige with whatever you asked of her and she did it with a smile.
Riding her was the highlight of every morning, so when Bridie Sparkes reached out after listening to the podcast to let me know she was still alive and happy it made my day!
Bridie was the Stud Manager for John Singleton at Strawberry Hill Stud for many years and Ha Ha was in her care after she retired to stud.
I visited Ha Ha a few times over the years when she was there and this picture taken in 2010.
An epic failure as a broodmare, Ha Ha was given the very best opportunities with the very best stallions and for her first cover was sent to Ireland for a mating with Sadler’s Wells that produced a colt.
He sold for $1.3million at the 2006 Magic Millions and went on to win one minor race over 1900m as Standing Ovation and after that it was all downhill for Ha Ha, despite the best efforts of all of those who cared for her.
He was her only winner and she had only two other named fillies by Encosta de Lago that amounted to nothing and her only active female descendant according to Australian Studbook is Light Bulb Moment, who was sold through Magic Millions Online last year for $600.
The Champion 2YO and 3YO Filly of her generation, Ha Ha was a rare unicorn whose genetics have stopped there with her after she was officially dropped from the Studbook in 2017.
Fortunately, she was a favourite of John Singleton and when Strawberry Hill was sold to Coolmore in 2023, Ha Ha and Sunday Joy (AJC Oaks winner and dam of the great champion More Joyous), were sent to Yvonne Clerke in the Hunter Valley to be cared for and live out their days.
The old girls are living their best life and we believe Ha Ha at age 27 is now the oldest living Golden Slipper winner.
That was a title held by Newhaven Park Stud’s Burst for a long time as she only passed in 2022 at age 31, while Bint Marscay was another long liver getting to the age of 28 when she passed at Old Friends in Kentucky.
If you know of any old Golden Slipper winners still enjoying life, do email us at media@breednet.com.au
