Stay Inside’s dominant victory in the Golden Slipper Stakes at Rosehill was further confirmation, as if we needed it, of the impact Danehill has had on the race since his first-crop raced in Australia in 1993.
Not since Star Kingdom sired the first four winners of the race has a stallion had such an influence on the race.
Danehill went close with three successive winners in Danzero, Flying Spur and Merlene and would equal Star Kingdom’s five winners of the race.
Since then the Juddmonte Farms-bred Danehill has been involved in one way or another in 20 winners, the last four all direct male-line descendants.
Stay Inside is a great great grandson of Danehill and inbred 4×4 to Danehill who himself sired 5 Golden Slipper winners – Flying Spur, Danzero, Catbird, Merlene and Ha Ha plus four sons with Slipper winners, 4 grandsons with winners.
The 2yo division in Australia this season is notable for the impact of first-season sires with the four races worth over $1m for 2yos all won by their offspring, namely Shaquero (Shalaa), Profiteer (Capitalist), Artorius (Flying Artie) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).
Winner of the Gr1 Blue Diamond Stakes as a two-year-old, Extreme Choice himself only got 48 live foals in his first-crop and currently has four winners from 10 runners with three stakes performers, two of them with duplications of Danehill.
The Danehill duplication is also seen in the 2020 winner Farnan, a son of Not A Single Doubt and set to cover his first-season at Kia Ora Stud later this year.
The Golden Slipper Stakes was the brainchild of George Ryder who was looking for something to bring glamour to the Sydney Turf Club and saw an opportunity with a two-year-old race in the autumn at the club’s primary track, Rosehill in Sydney’s western suburbs.
The first running of the Slipper in 1957 was won by Todman, who blitzed his rivals by eight lengths and the Golden Slipper story was away.
The first running of the Golden Slipper coincided with the arrival in Australia of Star Kingdom, a precocious juvenile himself in England, who sired the first five Slipper winners – Todman, Skyline, Fine And Dandy, Sky High and Magic Night.
Todman himself sired two Sipper winners and Star Kingdom’s sons, Biscay, Bletchingly and Kaoru Star also got Golden Slipper winners.
Before the introduction of The Championships as Sydney’s version of the Breeders’ Cup, the Golden Slipper was the highlight of the Sydney autumn and while the meeting has arguably been supplanted, the cachet of the winner remains undiminished.
Whether purists like it or not, no race has impacted the modern Australian thoroughbred like the Golden Slipper Stakes
In the modern era the Golden Slipper winning colt generally becomes the most valuable colt and Stay Inside will retire alongside his sire at Newgate Farm in New South Wales after Henry Field moved to buy into the colt as well as Profiteer and Artorius ahead of the Golden Slipper.
And so, 27 years after Danehill got a Golden Slipper winner in his first-crop, his influence on Australia’s premier juvenile race shows little sign of dimming.
Golden Slipper winners with Danehill in their pedigree
2021: Stay Inside (Extreme Choice)
2020: Farnan (Not A Single Doubt)
2019: Kiamichi (Sidestep)
2018: Estijaab (Snitzel)
2016: Capitalist (granddam by Danehill)
2015: Vancouver (dam by Danehill)
2014: Mossfun (dam by Snitzel)
2013: Overreach (Exceed And Excel)
2011: Sepoy (dam by Danehill)
2010: Crystal Lily (Stratum)
2008: Sebring (dam by Flying Spur)
2007: Forensics (Flying Spur)
2006: Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice)
2005: Stratum (Redoute’s Choice)
2004: Dance Hero (Danzero)
2001: Ha Ha (Danehill)
1999: Catbird (Danehill)
1996: Merlene (Danehill)
1995: Flying Spur (Danehill)
1994: Danzero (Danehill)