Go Bloodstock’s Lady Of Camelot scores Tulloch Lodge another Slipper
Written Tycoon filly produces classy performance in Rosehill’s Group 1 juvenile feature
Lady Of Camelot brought an eighth Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) to Gai Waterhouse, a second to co-trainer Adrian Bott and her sire, Yulong’s Written Tycoon (Iglesia), and a first for Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock with a breathtaking victory in the world’s richest two-year-old race at Rosehill on Saturday.
The second-ranked in the market of Tulloch Lodge’s six starters, Lady Of Camelot went one better than her second place finish in the Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) last month by powering home late to defeat a resurgent Coleman (Pierata) – the disgraced favourite that day at Caulfield – by a 0.2 lengths.
After six months of build-up and a stud deal with Coolmore worth tens of millions of dollars, Waterhouse and Bott’s much-vaunted Storm Boy (Justify) damaged his chances with a rare dawdling start as $2.60 favourite, but performed admirably to finish third on a sub-optimal inside run, eventually finishing 1.5 lengths adrift of the winner.
Victory pushed Waterhouse two Slippers ahead of the previous record for the race set by her father Tommy Smith, and came four years after her first in partnership with Bott, with Farnan (Not A Single Doubt).
This win gave Yulong Stud’s Written Tycoon a 15th top-level winner and a second Slipper after Capitalist’s 2016 triumph, and capped a star-studded day for Zhang Yuesheng’s Victorian farm, celebrating three Group 1s. Veight (Grunt) became the first top-tier victor for his second season Yulong sire in the George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m), while Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) won the Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), the Irish Group 1 winner’s first Australian start.
And Lady Of Camelot’s win will feel particularly special for Waterhouse, coming via a homebred for her old friend Glenn, the octogenarian New Zealand millionaire breeder and philanthropist.
While Glenn held a share in 2021 winner Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), Lady Of Camelot is the first Slipper champion to bear his famed yellow and white silks. While his star horse Criterion (Sebring) won him four Group 1s, he managed only sixth in the Slipper when third-favourite in 2013.
Yesterday’s triumph also continues a remarkable run for Sir Owen’s broodmare Miss Debutante (Fastnet Rock), the Kia Ora-bred whose only three foals to race have all been Group winners – and Slipper starters.
Michael Freedman’s Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible) has won four Group 3 races and finished eighth in the 2022 edition of Rosehill’s juvenile feature. Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) won Waterhouse her first Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000) before finishing 12th in last year’s edition. And now her stablemate Lady Of Camelot has duxed the family, adding to her Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) success with the most important title of Australia’s breeding scene.
Bought for Glenn at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2015 from the Kia Ora Stud draft by Paul Moroney Bloodstock for $430,000, Miss Debutante won four of her eight starts for Tulloch Lodge, headlined by her triumph in Scone’s Denise’s Joy Stakes (Listed, 1100m).
She now has a yearling colt by Flying Artie (Artie Schiller), and foaled a sister to Queen Of The Ball last spring before missing to Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
Waterhouse watched from home with a group of friends as Lady Of Camelot, given a beautiful early passage by Blake Shinn behind the four pacesetters – including three stablemates – won her another Slipper, as a well-supported $6.50 third favourite. Coolmore’s second-favourite Switzerland (Snitzel) finished a disappointing eighth.
In his co-trainer’s absence, Bott described the emotions post-race in one word.
“Fantastic,” he said.
“We’ve spoken on numerous occasions throughout this week about what this race means to the stable, the industry, the public. It’s a great race to win.
“I’m delighted to be able to do that once again and alongside a special person in Gai Waterhouse, who I have to thank so much for the career, the partnership we’ve been able to do together.
“It’s a great achievement. She has gone to another level again. Eight Slippers for her now.”
With so many starters, Bott said it was difficult to know where to look as his team’s Shangri La Express (Alabama Express), Straight Charge (Written By) and Fully Lit (Hellbent) sat in the first four.
Storm Boy made strong ground to be sixth on the fence before the turn. But while his jockey Ryan Moore took the inside run which had carried him to victory last year on Shinzo (Snitzel), in Saturday’s race it was not the place to be, with no winners near the inside from the third event onwards.
As Storm Boy toiled gamely, first Coleman – from seventh on the turn – and then Lady Of Camelot overhauled Straight Charge. While Coleman was being hailed the winner at the 50-metre mark, he peaked on his run somewhat while Lady Of Camelot, who’d been held up early in the straight, surged on his inside.
“It’s hard to know where to look. The race changed complexion there pretty quickly with him (Storm Boy) missing the start,” Bott said.
“I had to watch him try to pick up and I lost track of the others at that point and the way the track has been playing, it has been difficult for them to come up the inside.”
Bott said he was delighted for Glenn, who “puts so much into the industry”.
“She’s a homebred for him, we trained the mare (Miss Debutante), this is the third foal out of her and they’ve all been two-year-old stakes winners,” he said. “She is obviously the best of them now.
“But a special thrill for him I’m sure. Not only to own her but to breed her with a family he’s got a heavy involvement in.”
Bott was also effusive in his praise for Shinn, who claimed his second Slipper having ridden Capitalist, another son of Written Tycoon, to victory for Team Snowden.
“It was very exciting. I was getting held up there for a bit, but I just had to bide our time and wait for the opportunity to present and when it did she really let down well,” said Shinn, who was initially lured to Sydney from his home state Victoria as a young rider by Waterhouse.
“I had the horse to quicken and we just needed the gap and she was great. I’m so happy.
“A little bit like Capitalist, when I won on him in 2016, we got [the gap] and she did the rest. It was really special.
“It means a lot. This is one of the majors and I think more so it means a lot this time because I’ve done it for Adrian and particularly Gai.
“This is one of the iconic races in Sydney, but it’s the world’s richest two-year-old race and it’s the one us jockeys here want to win.
“To do it for my second time and for Adrian and, in particular Gai, who brought me to Sydney in the first place … it’s very special.”
Jockey Kerrin McEvoy said the Matt Laurie-trained Coleman had turned in a “huge” run, especially having overcome a minor foot issue after his 13th in the Blue Diamond, which he followed with third place in last Saturday’s Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
“I thought I was the winner at the 300 metres,” McEvoy said. “He gave a nice kick and Blake just got the splits. Great training effort by Matty.”
Storm Boy stood to earn his original connections an eight-figure kicker payment in the Coolmore deal by winning yesterday, possibly taking the sale’s value past $50 million. Smaller bonus clauses can still be triggered if he wins Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick next month and/or the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – races Moore said might be to the colt’s liking after his run yesterday.
“He didn’t begin as cleanly as I would have liked. Had to switch my run toward the inside which wasn’t ideal,” Moore said after his first ride on the colt. “He’s a very talented horse. Didn’t have the rub of the green today. Probably improve when he goes a bit further.”
Of the other beaten riders, James McDonald said Switzerland was under pressure “a long way from home” and had probably come to the end of his preparation. Craig Williams was full of praise for Traffic Warden (Street Boss), the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) winner who came in fourth, 0.3 lengths ahead of Michael Freedman’s Manaal (Tassort) in fifth.
Bodyguard (I Am Invincible) faded poorly in the straight to run 14th, while Blue Diamond winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) – heavily supported into $10 – struck trouble in hitting the running rail after being taken back and across from gate 15, and struggled throughout before finishing a tailed-off last.
“Lucky we got around in the end,” said the filly’s rider, Jamie Kah. “She nearly fell over out of the gates and nearly fell over again. A non-event today.”