Flying Spur

 A hard fought Group I victory in the WATC Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot last Saturday for Takedown credited his sire Stratum with his fifth Group I winner, which got us thinking about the fortunes of our Golden Slipper winning sires.

Winning the Golden Slipper in this country is seen as hitting the jackpot in terms of a stallion making race, so is it the passport to success many studmasters believe?

A son of the immortal Star Kingdom (IRE), Todman won the first Golden Slipper in 1957 and went on to become a highly successful sire paving the way for all that have followed since.

Colts such as Vain, Baguette, John's Hope, Luskin Star, Marscay, Rory's Jester, Marauding, ill-fated Star Watch (he died after two seasons), and Canny Lad continued the trend right up until 1990, but there were also less than successful sires along the way including Full on Aces, Sir Dapper and Tierce.

The Danehill era began in 1994, delivering two successful sires in consecutive years in Danzero and Flying Spur, who both stood with great success for many years at Arrowfield Stud.

Interestingly both horses started their stud careers in Victoria for Arrowfield with Chatwood Stud, as at that time in the mid-nineties shuttle sires were commercially hot and colonial speed was seen as somewhat pedestrian…. my how that school of thought has changed!

Catbird made it a trio of successful Slipper winning sires by Danehill when he retired to Yarraman Park and then Stratum was the next Slipper winning colt to go to stud when he went to Widden in 2006.

He was an immediate hit for Widden taking top honours as Champion First Season Sire and Champion 2YO Sire with his first crop which included the Golden Slipper winner Crystal Lily.

Widden moved fast to secure the next Golden Slipper winning colt in Sebring, who has also proven a runaway success at stud standing this spring at a $77,000.

Darley homebred Sepoy won the Slipper in 2011 and was hotly favoured to achieve stud success after posting phenomenal results at the sales with his first crop of yearlings. Now three year-olds they are yet to deliver quite as was anticipated.

Coolmore is home to two of the more recent Slipper winners with Pierro having his first two year-olds hitting the track this season and Vancouver covering his first book of mares, while this year's winner Capitalist has been retired already in preparation for his first season at Newgate Farm in 2017.

The majority of Slipper winners have gone on to achieve commercial success at stud in varying degrees with Flying Spur and Sebring the best of them since 1990, the latter bred from a daughter of the former.

How the current crop fare in the future will be of great interest given they come from such diverse sirelines – Pierro by Lonhro, Vancouver by Medaglia D'Oro (USA) and Capitalist by Written Tycoon.

It could be argued that it is more important for a stallion to sire a Golden Slipper winner than to actually be one.