The new season is nearly upon us and that means all over the country a new crop of rising two year-olds are taking baby steps in the best stables in the land with the Australian Turf Club announcing this week they had received 1881 entries for the 2027 Golden Slipper, so who is in the race?
Click here to check out Golden Slipper 2027 sortable data.
Our data sort includes Sale Mail so allows you to search by sales vendor, so if you sold a yearling this year check out if it has been entered for the Golden Slipper - click here for vendor sort
Most Represented Sires
The same three stallions that were the most represented last year are the same this year with the slight change of Home Affairs passing his sire I Am Invincible to go to the top of the list with 87 entries and Snitzel is in third and tied with first season sire Anamoe on 66 entries.
The big mover on this list is Yulong based Alabama Express, who was only moderately popular in his first three seasons at stud before his first runners hit the track.
This is crop four and while his fee was still only $22,000 that year, he covered 222 mares and they included plenty of quality Yulong owned mares, so expect to see Alabama Express step up next season and it could be the beginning of a long term upswing.
His following two books of 242 and 252 mares were covered at fees of $55,000 and $66,000, which is his fee again this spring.
Alabama Express will have nowhere to hide going forward given the opportunity he has been given.
Most Represented First Season Sires
Australian Horse of the Year Anamoe was the most expensive first season sire when he went to stud and was also dominant with his first yearlings in the sale ring so he leads this category by a space with 66 entries as you would expect.
Scanning down the list you will see a name you might not expect.
Ka Ying Master, I had to go and look him up! (Click here to see his stallion page)
He is a seven time winner in Hong Kong by champion sire Snitzel standing at Bombora Downs in Victoria and Ka Ying Master has two foals in his first crop and the filly from Wijdaan has been entered for the Golden Slipper.
Most Represented Nominators
Ciaron Maher has never won a Golden Slipper, but obviously will have it on the radar next year given he leads the list of nominators with 119 entries, which is two ahead of Yulong with 117.
Godolphin are usually among the leading nominators, but their involvement this year is harder to quantify with their juvenile crop now spread across a selection of trainers with just 10 horses nominated by Godolphin under their name.
They are easy to spot given most of them are named and if you click on any trainer you can see what they have with the Clayton Douglas entries obviously including all of the horses trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, who are disqualified for a month.
Most Expensive Entries
There were 41 entries that sold for $1million or more and they include the $3million Extreme Choice colt from Pretty Brazen that topped Inglis Easter and has joined the Chris Waller stable.
Also the three fillies that shared top honours as the highest priced fillies sold this year at $1.8million.
Clinton McDonald nominated the Extreme Choice from Speak Fondly, Grahame Begg nominated the Zoustar from Summer Sham and B2B Thoroughbreds paid up for the Snitzel from Laguna Azzurra (Jpn) that is a full sister to their Group I ATC Coolmore Classic winner Lazzura.
Least Expensive Entries
This is the other end of the scale and plenty of owners are living the dream and three of the top five least expensive yearlings have already been named.
Inglis Digital accounts for quite a few of the bargain priced entries and given the country’s best three year-old filly Sheza Alibi was bought online for $10,000 it’s probably wise not to discard a horse based on it’s purchase price.
