The Golden Slipper early birds

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

The recent history of the Golden Slipper has tipped firmly in the favour of the emerging stallion producing the winner of the world's richest juvenile race, with three of the past four winners coming from the first two crops of their sires.

Fireburn's win on Saturday was remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which the way the Gary Portelli-trained filly overcame mid-race interference to win the first $5 million Slipper with an air of authority.

Of course, it was also notable as she is from the second crop of a stallion, Rebel Dane, who has battled to find a home and find mares to serve in recent years. The win was transformative for his prospects of finding a home in the Hunter Valley this season, having left Victoria's Glen Eden Stud last month with his future plans currently unclear.

The Golden Slipper has become the scene of some extraordinary results for young stallions in recent years. In 2021, Extreme Choice, whose fertility battles saw him produce just 48 foals in his first crop, was the sire of the Slipper winner Stay Inside.

Two years prior, it was Godolphin filly Kiamichi putting her sire Sidestep up in lights with a Slipper win. Darley had moved Sidestep from its Hunter Valley Kelvinside base to Queensland's Telemon Thoroughbreds the previous year after he had failed to capture the imagination of breeders, with a book of just 37 in his third year.

Gallery: Recent sires who produced a first-crop Golden Slipper winner

Sidestep would become the first sire in nine years, and just the second since 1994, to produce a Golden Slipper S. winner from his first crop, transforming his commercial appeal, at least in the short term.

Going back to 1990, 12 of the past 33 Golden Slipper winners have been from either the first or second crop of their sires, but has that early success proven the making of them?

Early Victory

The early 1990s were particularly fertile ground for young stallions making their mark in the Slipper, starting out with Tierce's victory in the 1991 edition.

He was by Bascobel Stud's Victory Prince, the first Group 1 winner for Clarry Conners, a trainer who would then enjoy 2-year-old Triple Crown success with his brilliant second-crop son.

Victory Prince's second crop contained just 20 foals, pointing to what a 'unicorn' Tierce was, and it supercharged interest in the stallion, whose book jumped from 28 in 1990 to 90 in 1991. The following year, interest stayed high at 70, but the sugar rush only lasted a couple of seasons, and from 1993 onwards, he would not serve more than 40 mares in a season.

Victory Prince produced five stakes winners after Tierce, the best of which was the G1 Blue Diamond S. winner Principality.

The following year, Conners was to the fore again, with a history-making success with the brilliant filly Burst, who delivered a G1 Golden Slipper S. win from the first crop of her sire Marauding (NZ), who had won the race himself five years prior.

Burst, who would also win the 2-year-old Triple Crown, was the undoubted first-crop star by Marauding, but the Newhaven Park-based sire produced three 2-year-old stakes winners from that first crop, with G3 Gimcrack S. winner Watch and G1 VRC Sires' Produce S. winner King Marauding added into the mix.

In a very successful career at stud, Marauding would end up with 32 stakes winners and while Burst certainly gave him prominence, he already had plenty of fans. His book of mares didn't jump off that 1992 autumn and stayed steady until his final years in that 60-70 a season range.

Six years later, Marauding would produce a second Golden Slipper winner, Prowl, one of his eight Group 1-winning progeny.

Danehill days

The 1994 and 1995 seasons proved the launching point of one of Australia's most influential and successful stallions, Danehill (USA). His first-crop star Danzero was his first Group 1 winner when he won the 1994 Slipper and 12 months later Flying Spur, from his second crop, would repeat the dose, becoming Danehill's seventh elite winner.

While Danehill had success over the world, his dominance of Australia's top 2-year-old race, with five winners in his first eight crops, laid the foundations for his generational impact on the Australian thoroughbred industry.

Off the back of that 1993/94 season, which saw him produce three first crop Australia 2-year-old stakes winners, Danehill's numbers jumped beyond 100 for the first time. His first two Australian crops were relatively modest in size, with foal crops of 52 and 47.

In the early 2000s, two Golden Slipper winners came from the second crops of their respective sires.

Belle Du Jour's 2000 Golden Slipper win is one of the best individual performances the great race has seen and she was from the second Australian crop of Coolmore Australia shuttler Dehere (USA). She was his first Global Group 1 winner, but by the time she had hit the track, he had been sold to Japan.

He would arrive back in Australia in 2002, serve 100 mares and then continue on his successful career which saw him produce 80 global stakes winners, 30 of them in Australia.

In 2002, Calaway Gal, from the second crop of Willowbend Stud resident Clang, won the G1 Golden Slipper. Clang, standing at $4000, had served strong books of mares in Queensland, but Calaway Gal changed the game for a couple of years for the stallion. He served 199 mares in 2002, including the dam of his future Group 1 winner Black Piranha, and had another 139 mares in 2003.

Gallery: Images courtesy of Sportpix

There were also reports of a $5 million bid for the stallion from Darley, but that deal never came to fruition and he remained in Queensland, finishing with a respectable 20 stakes winners and the rare achievement of having sired both a Golden Slipper winner and a G1 ATC Derby winner, Clangalang.

Redoute's and son

Redoute's Choice's star was firmly on the rise before his second-crop son Stratum won the 2005 Golden Slipper. He had 14 individual stakes winners by that time and first-crop filly Lotteria had won the G1 Flight S. and second-crop filly Undoubtedly the G1 Blue Diamond S.

Stratum's win was nonetheless quite significant, as Redoute's Choice had been robbed of winning the race himself having been scratched on race morning in 1999. The Arrowfield sire would produce the race winner again the following year with Miss Finland.

Stratum would create his own piece of history by producing a Slipper winner himself from his first crop, in the star filly Crystal Lily. A four-time stakes winner as a juvenile, she was undoubtedly a massive driver of the success at Widden Stud of Stratum, who would die at the relative early age of 14.

Stratum always had big numbers, but after Crystal Lily's Slipper, his fee jumped to $60,500 (inc GST), setting him up for a better quality of mare and ongoing success both commercially and on the racetrack.

Vancouver, the 2015 Golden Slipper winner, was the first Australian-bred star of Darley shuttler Medaglia D'Oro (USA), playing a major role in the ongoing popularity of the stallion in Australia. From his second crop, he was Medaglia D'Oro's second Australian stakes winner, behind Nostradamus, and his first Group 1 winner.

Medaglia D'Oro never struggled for numbers, with plenty of support from Darley, but the measure of the impact of that 2015 Slipper win was the fact his Australian fee doubled to $110,000 (inc GST) later that year.

While his progeny has continued to be successful in Australia, Medaglia D'Oro only served three more books after Vancouver's Slipper win as his success in the United States made him almost too valuable to shuttle back to the Southern Hemisphere.

As things stand, he has 27 stakes winners in Australia, and 115 in the United States.

Extreme examples

That brings us to the three recent Slipper-producing stallions we mentioned earlier.

Sidestep is an interesting case study. As mentioned, his mare numbers skyrocketed from 57 to 113 after Kiamichi's win, while his fee went from $7700 (inc GST) to $22,000 (inc GST).

But in an industry obsessed with currency, and with smaller crops following that first-crop success, momentum has been hard to maintain. While he has produced two further stakes winners in Europe, additional stakes winners in Australia are yet to follow.

In 2020 his book at Telemon dropped to 66, while last year, with his fee back to $11,000 (inc GST), he had a book of 17.

Extreme Choice is a very different case as demand is an issue for his services. His statistics so far from his first two crops are nothing short of astonishing, with seven stakes winners from 38 runners to date.

Stay Inside is his only Group 1 winner to date, but he has had a bevvy of stars of both sexes emerge from those first two crops.

His fertility challenges have meant he has to be managed closely in terms of the amount of mares he serves and his fee was listed as private last year. His 2021 crop of foals was his largest yet, at 61, while he then served a book of 76 elite mares.

Providing he can get meaningful numbers continually on the ground, his career at Newgate appears to be well grounded to continue on its merry way.

So where does Rebel Dane fit into the profile of the stallions above? There will be plenty of studs willing to give him a home, but his investors would love to get someone who wants to put their money in, as well as a commitment of quality mares to ensure his longevity.

The challenge posed is his crops of seven foals to come in each the next two seasons, meaning new elite performers will be hard, but not impossible, to come by in the short-to-medium term.

It is likely that demand for his services this year will rocket from the 49 he served at Glen Eden Stud last year. That crop will hit the yearling sales ring in 2024, with the first crop from wherever his new base will be this season to follow in 2025.