Precocity is class: Putting the Widden and Chairman's Stakes' producing records under the microscope

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

This Saturday provides three more chances for juveniles in New South Wales and Victoria to earn valuable prizemoney - and black-type status - on the road to the states’ headline juvenile events, the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes on February 21 and the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes on March 21. When we put the winners of two under the microscope, the G3 Chairman’s Stakes and the G3 Widden Stakes have a remarkable record for producing valuable horses at stud.

The dominion of fillies

Initially run in 1990 as the Listed Bounding Away Quality over 1000 metres and won in 1999 as the Listed Veuve Clicquot Stakes by Redoute’s Choice, the now G3 Chairman’s Stakes has increasingly become the dominion of fillies over the last 20 editions of the race. Sixteen of the past 20 winners have been fillies, with the colt winners in that period headed up by Extreme Choice, who progressed to win the Blue Diamond.

In the 2026 edition, three colts line up against six fillies and Big Sky (Bivouac) will carry a 4kg impost over the fillies in the field thanks to a first up Flemington win - a feat achieved by Extreme Choice in his own season, thanks to his prior win in the R. Listed Inglis Nursery. A third placing on debut in the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic places no such penalty on Invincible Son (Farnan).

“The race set-up from the outside barrier suggested he was never going to run better than third,” trainer Robbie Griffiths said of the colt’s debut. “If he had waited, he still runs third and if he tries to get into the race earlier, he burns it around the corner.”

Griffiths doesn’t need an Extreme result to take the colt forward to the Diamond.

“Win, lose or draw, whatever happens, he's going to improve. You can't be at your peak now if you want to be in the Diamond in three weeks' time. The most important thing is to see where his benchmark is at this time of the year. If he runs a good race on Saturday, knowing there's room to improve, then we can go into the final with some optimism knowing we're somewhere in the mix."

Grahame Begg’s Jadzia (Ole Kirk) is one of the runners who intended to kick off in last week’s G3 Blue Diamond Preview (fillies) before scratching due to the weather, and she reloads for the Chairman's this weekend.

"It was an easy call (to scratch last week), particularly with the temperature that it was going to be and the prospects of running on a pretty firm deck last week," Begg said. "We're very happy with her. She galloped beautifully on Tuesday in company with another horse. So far, the bits of work that she's done and her jump-out and trial, they have been more than satisfactory."

For a large chunk of the field, the Chairman’s wasn’t the peak of their talent; seven winners went on to win stakes races as 3-year-olds or older, including Headway (Charge Forward) in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes, Extreme Choice's G1 Moir Stakes victory, and Loving Gaby’s (I Am Invincible) Group 1 double in her sophomore year.

“A lot of these fillies black-type races close to the Slipper hold up very well,” said Rosemont Stud’s General Manager of Bloodstock Ryan McEvoy. Rosemont Stud and Peter Moody Racing purchased Headway at the 2018 Inglis Chairman's Sale for $220,000.

“These races can not only indicate that a filly has talent, but also that she has the appetite and natural precocity to take that ability to the races early. We value these races just as importantly as potentially some that feature later on in the calendar when looking at a mare’s record.”

If you want to find a Slipper winner

First run in 1943, the G3 Widden Stakes became a fillies-only race in 2008. The race has made a name for itself as a springboard for Golden Slipper success, exemplified as recently as 2024 when Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) went on to win the headline event. From 16 Widden winners in the last two decades to continue to the Slipper, three have won it. In addition, Away Game (Snitzel) ran a gallant second to Farnan in her Slipper year.

Corumbene Stud raced their homebred 2013 Widden and Golden Slipper victress Overreach (Exceed And Excel) in their own colours, and Corumbene’s Tommy Altomonte believes that the race’s placement in the calendar makes it a good omen for Slipper ability.

“It’s around eight weeks out from the Slipper,” he said. “It’s a perfect distance away from the grand final. With Overreach, they knew she had a lot of ability right from the start, so then a lot of planning goes into how to get horses like her to a Slipper through the right lead-up races. So I think, by design, the ones that know they have a good horse target this race.”

Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou hope that the producing record of fast precocious fillies repeats with debutant Chilly Girl (Trapeze Artist), a daughter of Listed Maribyrnong Trial victress I Got Chills (General Nediym).

“She was a very fast filly herself, I Got Chills, and hopefully we win on debut like I Got Chills did," Alexiou told RSN. "She's going the right way. She has trialled really nicely twice this time in. Obviously, it's not going to be an easy race to win at her first start, but from a good barrier, if she can get a few breaks she'll run really well.”

Not many Widden winners travel south for the Blue Diamond, but those that do prove themselves high calibre fillies; only three have done so in the past 20 years, and none have finished worse than fourth. The Playwright (Written By) was fourth last year, while Lady Of Camelot was second ahead of her Slipper win and Away Game was fourth in 2020.

Peter Snowden trained Widden acceptor Pearl Of Dubai’s (Wootton Bassett {GB}) half-brother Pride Of Dubai to a Blue Diamond victory, and he is keeping his options open with the filly who debuted with a second placing in the $160,000 Kirkham Plate in October.

"She has always shown a bit in her work, and that was her very first preparation," Snowden said. "She came from the breakers straight in and went all the way to a trial and all the way to the races, which was terrific.

“She is a beautiful type and has such a good pedigree, you've got to give them the opportunity and that's what we're doing with her. We'll get a bit more idea about how she is going after Saturday."

Only four of the last 20 Widden winners have won stakes races at 3-year-olds or older - the best of whom would be G1 Robert Sangster Stakes victress Driefontein (Fastnet Rock) - but eight won other Group races in the autumn of their juvenile years as well.

An Extreme influence

Only the fourth horse to complete the Chairman’s–Blue Diamond double, Extreme Choice’s eventual stud career needs no introduction. His presence can be felt across all three Group 3 juvenile features this weekend; he himself is represented by Hidrix in the G3 Canonbury Stakes, and his Slipper-winning son Stay Inside has four runners, Incognito and Eviction Notice in the Canonbury, Machrihanish in the Widden, and Captive Rock in the Chairman’s.

“He’s quite natural,” is how Simon Zahra described Captive Rock to racing.com on Friday. “He’s always been natural as he can run a bit of time and he looks like a 2-year-old. He’s handled everything well. We will give him a shot at the title.

“(Not sure) whether he’s going to be ready for the Blue Diamond as he might be a bit of a whippet. If he’s going to run in a Diamond, he needs to be competitive against these sorts of horses as it looks a strong race.”

Zahra is no stranger to success in these races, having trained Crystal Lily (Stratum) in 2010 to her Chairman’s victory and subsequent Slipper win in partnership with Mat Ellerton.

“I know the recipe for how to win a Golden Slipper,” he said. “I just need to find the right horse and I picked out three of them to see how we go this year.”

Precocious blue-bloods

The record for female Chairman’s winners is just as notable; of the 11 filly winners from the last two decades to have runners on the track to date, all 11 have produced winners. Loving Gaby, Formality (Fastnet Rock), and Mama’s Choice (Redoute’s Choice) all have a 100% strike rate for runners to winners.

Four have produced stakes winners - including Metastasio (Street Cry {Ire}), the dam of the spring’s G1 Golden Rose Stakes winner Beiwacht (Bivouac) - and two more have produced stakes performers. All of them have produced metropolitan level winners.

2018 Chairman’s winner Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock) is one branch of Coolmore’s prolific Hips Don’t Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}) family, and her second foal Learning To Fly (Justify {USA}) also won the Widden Stakes. Learning To Fly stamped herself a prime Slipper chance with her G2 Reisling Stakes win, and as a 3-year-old, she signed off her career with a narrow second in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes.

“The 2-year-old racing starts to heat up around this time as we head towards the Slipper and the Diamond,” said Coolmore Stud’s Colm Santry. “These fillies were all very well-bred and all had precocious speed at two, and speed is hereditary in our business. Wins in races like the Widden and the Chairman’s are certainly indicators of high class fillies, they are industry benchmark races.

“Both races must be respected, and it’s now the time of year where some of the better 2-year-olds are starting to show themselves.”

Another classy runner for Coolmore, Formality won the 2017 edition of the race, then amassed three Group wins the following spring before running third in the Coolmore to Merchant Navy. She has since produced HK$10 million ($1.85 million) earner Pray For Mir (Justify {USA}), winner of the G3 Lion Rock Trophy last year.

“Formality was a very high class 3-year-old in the spring,” Santry said. “For a filly to run third in the Coolmore is a huge achievement. Precocity is class in Australia, and a lot of these very good, precocious fillies tend to come on and produce their best as 3-year-olds. Formality and Learning To Fly have certainly proven that. They are by two world-class stallions in Fastnet Rock and Justify, and they had wicked speed, and that is what they are passing on.”

The legacy of Hips Don’t Lie continues on Saturday in the Chairman’s where her daughter La Gitana (Home Affair) is an acceptor after two slick jump-out wins for the Hayes brothers. The Lindsay Park team trained Ennis Hill herself, and Ben Hayes commented that it would be quite special to repeat the feat with her half-sister.

“She was supposed to run last week (in the Blue Diamond Preview) but she got caught up in that big traffic jam, which is a shame,” he told racing.com. “Luckily, we’ve drawn well again (in barrier four) and think Caulfield will suit her. There’s not much of her, but she’s got a big heart and she’s very fast.

“She’s professional, she jumps, and that’s half the battle with 2-year-olds.”

A race for producers

Like the Chairman’s Stakes, the Widden has a long, wonderful record of turning out good broodmares. The list of top producers to win the Widden includes the likes of Denise’s Joy (Seventh Hussar {Fr}), Triscay (Marscay), Shaybisc (Biscay), and Biscarina (Biscay), dam of Schillaci. From 12 Widden winners to have produced runners so far amongst the past 20 winners, 10 have produced winners, all but one at metropolitan level, and five have produced stakes winners.

Of those black-type winners, all three that are colts have ended up at stud; G2 Rubiton Stakes winner Lofty Strike, son of Overreach, welcomed his first foals in 2025 and G1 Spring Champion Stakes victor Profondo, whose dam Honesty Prevails (Redoute’s Choice) won the race in 2016, was represented by his first yearlings at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale this month.

Mossfun (Mossman), who won the Widden–Slipper double the year after Overreach, is represented at stud by her G3 Festival Stakes-winning son Dajraan (GB), who also had his first foals arrive in 2025.

Honesty Prevails and Fireworks (Snitzel), who has produced Listed Foundation Plate victor Millane (Zoustar), are among six of the producing mares for whom the Widden Stakes was their only win.

Away Game has yet to have any progeny to the track, but in her Slipper second, she beat Blue Diamond winner Tagaloa, whose daughter Miss Chanel will attempt to strengthen her record with a Widden victory on Saturday. Her dam Talented (Snitzel) was a debut Geelong winner in the January of her juvenile year before running second in the Listed Talindert Stakes to Microphone.

“I thought she stuck on nicely (on debut) and she will improve a lot for that,’’ co-trainer Adrian Bott told RSN. “She was a little bit new, a little bit lost and may not have appreciated the conditions on the day as well. Back on a firmer track and having had the experience, the benefit of racing at Rosehill, are a few factors that I think will see her able to improve.”

Satin Shoes (Flying Spur) boasts the most enviable record in terms of success; her first foal Satin Slipper (Pierro) won the Listed Gimcrack Stakes at her very first start and of six foals to the track, she has produced five winners to date. The most recent of those is current juvenile Satin Summer (Written Tycoon) who was a winner on debut at Randwick last Saturday for owner-breeder Belinda Bateman.

Generating high value in the ring

Talent on the track begets success in the ring, and both races have produced that for vendors and buyers alike. Rosemont Stud have paid well for winners in the past; 2020 Chairman’s winner Mildred (Hinchinbrook) was a $850,000 purchase for the stud alongside Suman Hedge (FBAA), and they went to $1.35 million to secure 2018 Widden winner Fiesta (I Am Invincible).

Fiesta’s first foal, who sold for $700,000 last year, has been named Carnevale (Pinatubo {Ire}), and he debuted to fourth place in the G3 Maribyrnong Plate.

“Fiesta was a terrific mare from the early crops of I Am Invincible,” McEvoy said. “She was a really high class mare at two, three, and four. Her colt Carnevale was the highest priced Pinatubo sold last year, and he’s a talented horse. The Lindsay Park team have got a very high opinion of him, so we are excited to see what transpires in his career.”

McEvoy was keen to highlight that the strength of both mare’s first foals and how they have been received by the market further vindicates the success of both races as a place to find a good filly; “The market has always got this insatiable appetite for a talented, precocious filly and what they can produce at stud. Fiesta and Mildred both prove that.

“As an owner of those fillies, it's as important to win those kinds of races as perhaps a Group 2 or a Group 3 is an older mare.”

For those forward thinkers with fillies racing on Saturday, it's not just a spot in the Golden Slipper or the Blue Diamond that could be on the line.

Table: Final field for the 2026 G3 Widden Stakes

Table: Final field for the 2026 G3 Chairman's Stakes