Golden Slipper fits for I Am Invincible filly Queen Of The Ball
Black Opal Stakes victory gives owner-breeder Sir Owen Glenn a second runner in $5 million juvenile showpiece
Trainers Michael and Richard Freedman intend to back up yesterday’s Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Queen Of The Ball in Saturday’s $5 million Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), giving her sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) the chance to claim an elusive maiden juvenile Group 1 victory as a stallion.
The Sydney trainers’ representative at Canberra immediately put the Slipper in Queen Of The Ball’s reckoning, with the $120,000 first-place prize-money in yesterday’s Black Opal enough to ensure the Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner would make the field of 16 when acceptances are taken for the $5 million two-year-old race.
“That would be the way, now she’s officially got herself in. That’s her ticket,” Freedman Racing’s Sophie Johnson said.
“I think you’d be silly to turn that away. Obviously we’ll see how she pulls up, that’s the main thing, just getting her back home and making sure she is OK when we get her back.
“It’s a relief. The stress is gone. It’s great. It’s been a very, very bumpy road coming into this race. We’ve questioned a few runs, scratching her from (Saturday’s) race. This was our last option, really.
“It’s a big relief, she put them away.”
Jockey Rachel King pushed Queen Of The Ball ($2.80 favourite) forward from the outside barrier (12) to cross the well-backed Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained first starter Custodian (Shalaa), the half-brother to Group 1-winning colt Profondo (Deep Impact), and take up the lead and she was never headed from there.
First starter Warby, a colt by first-season sire Hellbent (I Am Invincible), bombed the start but charged home to finish a length and a quarter away in second, while Metallicity (Zoustar) was close up in third.
The Freedmans had scratched Queen Of The Ball from Saturday’s Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in preference for striking a drier Soft 5 surface in the nation’s capital and it proved the right move for the Sir Owen Glenn-bred-and-owned filly.
Sir Owen’s hand in the Slipper has doubled in a matter of days, with the leading owner-breeder also seeing Saturday’s Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Rise Of The Masses (Russian Revolution), a Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained colt, secure a berth in Saturday’s Group 1.
Queen Of The Ball is the first foal out of Sir Owen’s Listed winner Miss Debutante (Fastnet Rock), a $430,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale graduate who, in turn, is a daughter of US Grade 2-winning juvenile More Than Real (More Than Ready).
Miss Debutante’s second foal, a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) filly, brought $600,000 at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when knocked down to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, while she has a weanling filly by Written Tycoon (Iglesia). She was covered by Flying Artie (Artie Schiller) in 2021.
The Freedmans, who announced last week that they would dissolve their partnership at the end of this month, are aiming for back-to-back Golden Slipper victories, having prepared last year’s winner, the now retired Newgate Farm-based stallion Stay Inside (Extreme Choice).
Possible Golden Slipper field
Sejardan (Sebring)
Fireburn (Rebel Dane)
Best Of Bordeaux (Snitzel)
Seven Veils (Shalaa)
She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice)
Rise Of The Masses (Russian Revolution
Daumier (Epaulette)
Revolutionary Miss (Russian Revolution)
Coolangatta (Written Tycoon)
Shalatin (Shalaa)
Jacquinot (Rubick)
Ojai (Exceed And Excel)
Sebonack (Capitalist)
Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible)
Lady Laguna (Overshare)
Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution)
Emergencies
Sweet Ride (Deep Field)
Mumbai Jewel (I Am Invincible)
Millane (Zoustar)