‘Like all the horses in the race it’s his biggest test’
Kris Lees is hopeful he won’t feel like the bridesmaid in Saturday’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m), tipping Rivellino (Too Darn Hot) to put his best foot forward as he seeks victory in a race with a special meaning to the trainer’s family.
The Lees name is firmly linked to the history of the world’s richest two-year-old race. Trained by Kris’s father Max, the flying Luskin Star (Kaoru Star) became one of the event’s most storied winners in taking the 1977 edition by seven lengths in race record time.
That kicked off his juvenile triple crown triumph, with the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) also collected as the breathtaking chestnut unfurled a career of 17 starts for 13 wins.
Four came at the top level, including the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), as Luskin Star carried his early precocity into a three-year-old season comprising five wins and two seconds, before a stud career yielding 30 stakes winners.
Luskin Star came along for Max Lees just a couple of years into his training career, giving him the Slipper when he was 39.
The significance isn’t lost on Kris, who went from stable foreman to head trainer when Max died in 2003, and who’ll try to win this Saturday with only his second starter in the race. He’ll have a far better chance with the unbeaten Rivellino than with Elimbari (Fastnet Rock) in 2010, who finished last at $101.
“I don’t get too much into the emotional stuff, to be honest,” Lees told ANZ Bloodstock News. “But yeah, there is an attachment to the race. Luskin Star winning was a springboard for my father’s career, and that led to my career, so the race does have a special place in the family.”
Lees was too young to remember that 1977 Slipper, or its impact on his family, and by extension his own future. But he did have the benefit of a couple of decades of stories from his father about his rather special horse.
“I was only six when he won the Slipper, so I have no memories of it really. I do remember his three-year-old career, but only vaguely,” Lees said. “He was obviously a very special horse, and I did hear plenty of stories about him from the old man. I daresay there’s no Luskin Stars in it this year.”
Because of that, Lees believes he’s in with a strong chance with his colt, in an especially even 69th edition of the race that grew from a bold idea with a whimsical name to become Australia’s most important stallion-maker.
Bred by Scott Murray and Brian Ireland, Rivellino was sold from the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft at last year’s Inglis Classic to Lees and Bahen Bloodstock for $180,000. Raced by a group including mega owner Frank Cook and Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien – the colt is unbeaten after three well-spaced starts, all at Randwick.
He won a 1000-metre maiden on January 4 by 1.88 lengths, then the $2 million Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) on February 8 by 0.44 lengths – inflicting second-placed Within The Law’s (Lucky Vega) only defeat in four starts.
The imposing, beautifully dark-coloured colt then won the Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on March 1 by 0.14 lengths, beating subsequent Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) dominator Skyhook (Written Tycoon), and another Slipper rival Quietly Arrogant (Capitalist) into the minors.
Rivellino has drawn ideally in barrier three, and has earned comfortably more than any other Slipper runner – with $1.465 million, ahead of Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Devil Night’s (Extreme Choice) $1.29 million.
Yet he’ll have a new jockey in Hong Kong fly-in Hugh Bowman, since his past two riders have taken other rides with James McDonald on lingering favourite Wodeton (Wootton Bassett) and Jason Collett on Within The Law.
And market assessors on Wednesday had Rivellino only sharing the fourth line of betting behind Wodeton – a $4.60 favourite despite having his colours lowered in his past two starts – Godolphin filly Tempted (Street Boss) at $5, and the Ryan-Alexiou colt Skyhook at $8.
Devil Night is at $11 alongside Rivellino, while Within The Law is $13 along with Marhoona (Snitzel), a Canterbury 1100-metre fillies’ maiden winner before running second in Tempted’s Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
Alongside Rivellino, Skyhook’s stablemate King Of Pop (Farnan) is the only other unbeaten horse in the field, having won his two starts. Many of the rest have mixed their form, with Within The Law (three) and Tempted (two) the only other multiple winners.
So there’s a touch of the underdog about Rivellino, but Lees doesn’t mind at all.
“I think his price reflects how open the race is. He’s one of a number of good chances in it,” said Lees, adding the season’s juvenile grand final highlighted the evenness of this crop.
“I think there’s a lot of nice horses in the crop. There’s hasn’t been a real standout, and that might show that this is just a good crop of horses. I don’t think it denotes a lack of quality. Time will be the judge, but I don’t think so.”
Lees was drawn to Rivellino in a traditional way, having trained his dam. Intrinsic (So You Think) won three from 26 but was a city winner at Doomben, and ran fourth in two Listed sprints.
“She was city class in Brisbane, and wasn’t beaten far in a Ramornie [Handicap] at Grafton [0.57 lengths], so she was around stakes level,” Lees said of Rivellino’s dam.
“Since I trained her, you look at those types of horses at sales, and this boy [Rivellino] looked a real athletic two-year-old type to us, and we were lucky enough to purchase him.”
Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) has been an Australian sensation, winning the first season sires’ title last term and dominating the sophomore table in this one. Rivellino would become his second Group 1 winner, among ten Australian stakes victors, after Broadsiding, who’s been successful thrice at the top level.
“The Too Darn Hots are a bit dearer this year, so we’re really comfortable with what we paid for him at $180,000,” Lees said. “I think Too Darn Hot is a wonderful stallion. I bought a few of his last year and one or two this year. He’s not coming back, so it was lucky we got in when we did.”
With Too Darn Hot deemed too good to keep shuttling by his owners – Darley and Andrew Lloyd Webber – Lees agreed anyone in Australia with a well–performed colt by the stallion was potentially sitting on a gold mine.
And the Newcastle trainer is confident he’s left nothing to chance in his quest to put a gilt edge on Rivellino’s stud future in the Golden Slipper.
“He’s stepped up with each run,” he said. “He was good on debut, had five weeks to the Millennium, where he won really well from a wide barrier [13], and won well again three weeks later in the Skyline, again from a bad gate [nine].
“We’ve drawn well this time and at Rosehill, I always find an inside draw is favourable. Although he gets back in his races, you’d still prefer to be on the inside there. From the 1200 [metres], it’s a chute inside the track, so you hit quite a bit of a hairpin corner on a big curve down that side.
“The Randwick 1200 [metres] is pretty much a straight run with a little kink to the home bend. But at Rosehill, it’s quite a tight turning 1200 metres. If you take off before the corner and track wide you lose that bit of ground before you straighten.
“So while he gets back, with the good gate I’m hoping he can travel about midfield.”
Two of the past three Slipper winners have come along inside runs, in Fireburn (Rebel Dane) in 2022 and Shinzo (Snitzel) the year after.
“Like all the horses in the race it’s his biggest test, where they’re all coming together in the one race,” Lees said. “But he’s reacted well with the time between each run, and we’re happy to do it again.
“It’s his first race prep, so you’re a little bit guarded, but a lot of the horses are in the same boat.”
Bowman has Slipper form having won it aboard Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) in 2020, when Covid restrictions meant no crowd was allowed. The bulk of those permitted on course were stable staff, which led to one of the funnier moments in recent Slipper history.
On returning to scale, Bowman cheekily performed the celebration of throwing his goggles – crowd or no crowd. The only person there to snare them was Lees, a little like a bridesmaid catching a bride’s bouquet.
“My foreman and I were the only ones standing there giving Hughie a clap on the way in, so I caught the goggles,” Lees said with a laugh. “I threatened to sell them on eBay, but I gave them back to Hughie later in the day.”
Lees is hopeful he’ll be front and centre with Bowman after the Slipper, and that the jockey will have dispensed with his eyewear by the time he reaches him.
“We’ve got the right man for the job in Hughie,” Lees said. “We’ll get a good ride and get our chance. He’s a good patient rider, and can handle the nerves of a big race, which I think is important.”
Stakes debacle rumbles on
Racing Australia (RA) and Racing NSW (RNSW) are on a collision course with international black type authorities as they proceed with plans to stage Saturday week’s Neville Sellwood Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) as a Group 2.
The Sellwood was among 17 NSW races which RA and RNSW last year listed for upgrades, without having first gone through standard international procedures for having their status changes approved.
After those races were eventually submitted to the Asian Pattern Committee (APC), the Asian Racing Federation’s (ARF) executive committee last month rejected all 17 upgrades, endorsing a directive from the APC.
It was not immediately clear on what basis the 17 were rejected, but certain industry figures said it was most likely due to the fact Australia does not have a proper, internationally-recognised pattern committee, rather than because of any assessment of the races’ ratings.
Fifteen of the races had been run before the ARF’s rejection, with the Sellwood the first to come up after the decision.
Despite the ARF’s ruling, the Sellwood is still listed as a Group 2 on RA and RNSW data bases.
The final event on the list to be run – Gosford’s The Coast (1600m) on May 10 – currently has no black type designation on RNSW’s race diary, despite having been slated for an upgrade from non-black type to Listed. RA, however, still has it denoted as Listed.
The views and intentions of RNSW and RA regarding the 17 remain, publicly at least, a mystery.
RNSW chief executive Peter V’landys and RA CEO Paul Eriksson did not respond to requests for comment from ANZ Bloodstock News regarding the Sellwood on Wednesday, keeping up their public silence on the matter in recent months.
The ARF and APC have also not commented publicly on NSW’s ongoing black type debacle.
Catalogues throughout Australia’s ongoing yearling sale season do not reflect the supposed upgrades. Arion, the southern hemisphere’s leading supplier of catalogue information, has ignored the new designations put forward by RA and RNSW.