NEWS

Being a top stable doesn’t necessarily translate to dominance of the more specialist art of preparing two-year-olds.

Not one of the current top 10 trainers in the country won a juvenile Group 1 race this season. Of the 72 two-year-old stakes races contested so far this season, only 28 have been won by the top 10. In terms of overall two-year-old races, those top 10 have won 126 of 543, or 23.2 per cent.

The biggest improvement of any one trainer in this regard came from Bjorn Baker with 15, 10 more than he posted last season.

What is also significant for Baker is that he has compiled more two-year-old earnings this season than any other trainer with $3.9 million, an amount helped along by both O’ Ole and Within The Law, both of which are by first-season sires.

It is quite a change of fortune for Baker, whose two-year-olds last season banked just $242,000. His number of two-year-old starts also more than doubled this season from 35 to 77. His overall prize money total increased from $14.7 million to $25.5 million, fourth most of any Australian stable.

Second on the earnings list for two-year-olds was Micheal Freedman, whose star filly Marhoona won the Golden Slipper, powering him to $3.7 million. He has 10 two-year-old wins for the season. In comparison, he is 14th on the trainers’ table ranked by prize money.

The other Group 1 winning two-year-olds this season were trained by Team Hawkes, who had both Nepotism and Devil Night, Matt Laurie with Vinrock and Chris and Corey Munce with Cool Archie.

Team Hawkes and Laurie each only had four juvenile wins for the season, while the Munces have six.

The top stable when it comes to overall juvenile winners has been the Lindsay Park trio of Ben, JD and Will Hayes. Harking back to the days when the Hayes family dominated the two-year-old category, there have been 28 successes for the stable this season.

That is four more than last season, despite having a similar number of starters (119 to 117) and includes seven stakes winners, the equal most of any stable with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. The Hayes brothers also have the highest two-year-old winning percentage of any of the top 10, at 23.5 per cent.

The nation’s leading stable, Ciaron Maher, has 17 two-year-old wins, three more than last season, but less than the four seasons with David Eustace before that.

Waterhouse and Bott have dominated Australian two-year-old racing this decade with 35 and 37 wins in each of the past two completed seasons, including 18 individual stakes races.

But 2024/25 has seen a significant drop off in their volume of two-year-old wins, with 19 in total with just two weeks remaining. It is on track to be its quietest two-year-old season since 2019/20.

Entries for the $5 million race on 21 March 2026 closed earlier this week and the progeny of 150 sires are represented.

Leading the way in terms of nominators is Yulong with 115, while the Waterhouse and Bott stable has 107, Godolphin 95, Chris Waller 94 and Ciaron Maher 91.

The $3 million Home Affairs colt out of Shout The Bar, the sale-topper at the 2025 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, is among the nominees, as is the most expensive colt from the Magic Millions sale, the Snitzel ex Humma Humma purchased for $2.8 million.

All in all, 35 of the 38 million-dollar yearlings sold in Australia in 2025 are in the Slipper nominations.

Missing from the nominations is Lila La La, the $3.2 million Home Affairs ex Sunlight filly who topped the Magic Millions January sale and is now residing in Japan.

Leading syndicator Straight Six Racing is excited to have two horses nominated for the Golden Slipper – a Home Affairs ex Royal Missile colt and a Pinatubo ex Glamorous Miss filly. The company’s director Michael Ward said “Aside from the Everest, the Golden Slipper is the next most coveted race that every new racehorse owner dreams of winning. March 2026 may still seem a while away, but all of the owners with a rising 2YO will be having pleasant dreams until then”.

Source: The Straight, Straight Six Racing

The winner of seven races from his fifteen career starts, highlighted by a win in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate where he defeated Takeover Target, Snitzel retired with prizemoney of $1,026,550. However, it was in the breeding barn where he really packed a punch. Snitzel commenced his stud duties off a modest service fee of $33,000. Initially a slow burn, Snitzel soon began to hit his straps with 14 black type winners emerging from his third crop and after that he was away. By the time of his passing he was regarded as one of the truly great Australian stallions, boasting a stakes winners-to-runners ratio of 10.4% which included three Golden Slipper winners, Estijaab, Shinzo and the 2025 winner Marhoona. He was the sire of 160 individual stakes winners which allowed him to command a career-high service fee of $247,500 in 2024. This level of success translated into sales ring riches for those who were astute enough to support him. The 2025 yearling sales season saw his progeny average $656,889, the highest of his entire career. He will still have another couple of crops to make their way through the sales ring and with their numbers now limited, we anticipate some further eye-watering results to come.

Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward reminisced, “My brother and I were one of the earliest supporters of Snitzel, at a time when he was somewhat less fashionable. As a result, we were also significant beneficiaries of his success”. The pair purchased and syndicated amongst their clients twelve of his progeny over the years for a combined cost of $1,064,000, or an average of $88,667. Those twelve horses, which included Redzel, Hot Snitzel and Flying Snitzel, went on to win a combined $19,309,585 in prizemoney. This figure represented a remarkable 7.1% of Snitzel’s entire progeny’s earnings of $273 million to date. Michael said, “It is clear for all to see the impact that Snitzel has had on the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry, and I’m just so pleased that our paths crossed so early”.

The first mare through the ring was Miss Hellfire, a modest $60,000 purchase from the yearling draft of breeding behemoth Newgate Farm. Miss Hellfire went on to win over $650,000 on the racetrack, with her highlight being a Group 2 placing in the ATC Sapphire Stakes. Then yesterday after some spirited bidding, the gavel came down and Miss Hellfire had sold back to Newgate Farm for $640,000. That meant a combined return of over $1,290,000, which was 21.5 times her purchase price!

Next through the sales ring was the queen, Revolutionary Miss, a $195,000 purchase from the draft of Sledmere Stud. Bought during Covid, this mare was an absolute superstar, winning the Goup 2 Blue Diamond Prelude for fillies before finishing an unlucky 2nd by a nose in the Group 1 Blue Diamond after being bumped wide on the turn. She then built on that form by finishing 2nd in the time-honoured Group 1 Thousand Guineas in her 3YO year. Revolutionary Miss then went on to win further Group races as a 4YO and 5YO. Simply, an extraordinary mare. Going through the Magic Millions Broodmare Sale as Lot 466, the auction ring was in silence as an online bidding duel played out. In the end, it was Katsumi Yoshida from Japan that won out with a final bid of $1,600,000. With career prizemoney of $1,812,830 and memories to last a lifetime, the total return to her owners after yesterday’s sale was over $3,400,000. This represented 17.5 times her purchase price.

The final mare through the ring was Aemelius, a 3YO filly by Hellbent, purchased as a yearling for $130,000. Aemelius promised so much on the track, winning at Randwick at her 2nd career start, defeating Swiftfalcon and Pisces. She then finished 2nd in the Listed Phoenix Stakes at her third start, prior to running in the Group 1 JJ Atkins. This unfortunately turned out to be her final race after suffering an injury away from the track. Aemelius won $151,200 from only 4 career starts and when added to today’s sale price of $340,000, she returned a combined total of $491,200 to her owners.

Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward said, “I’m absolutely ecstatic for the owners. We fell in love with each of the mares the moment we laid eyes on them. To see them realise the potential we saw in them and deliver outstanding outcomes for their owners is very satisfying”.