Snitzel’s Slipper again as Emirates Park’s ‘special’ filly Marhoona delivers a Golden triumph
Breeding giant John Messara was almost lost for words before labelling Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) “an absolutely amazing stallion” after third-starter Marhoona became the Arrowfield sire’s third Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner on Saturday.
In an extraordinary twist, Snitzel – the four-time Australian champion sire and still Arrowfield’s flagbearer at nearly 23 years of age – was a Slipper-winning broodmare sire four years before siring a winner of the race.
Mossfun (Mossman), out of Snitzel’s first crop daughter Eye For Fun, won in 2014 – still as James McDonald’s only triumph in the Rosehill feature.
But now Snitzel has sired three of the Slipper’s past eight winners, with Estijaab in 2018 followed by Shinzo in 2023 and now Marhoona, who gave trainer Michael Freedman his second success in the world’s richest two-year-old race.
Ridden by Damien Lane, Marhoona also continued a phenomenal run of success in the race for Emirates Park homebreds – and all tied in with Snitzel. Mossfun, Estijaab and now Marhoona have all caused the Rosehill painter to daub the farm’s famed green with white sash on one of the statues flanking the winning post.
Marhoona continues a rich vein for her farm, being the fourth stakes-winner out of another Emirates homebred in the unraced Salma (Encosta De Lago), daughter of another Emirates mare in the Group 3-winning Salameh (Secret Savings), whose fourth dam was the great American blue hen Best In Show (Traffic Judge).
Saturday’s victory also continued the modern dominance of Australia’s greatest stallion-maker by fillies, with six of the past nine winners female.
Marhoona also matched a feat sealed 50 years ago by the outstanding Toy Show (Showdown) – winner of six modern Group 1s – in winning the Slipper after only two previous starts.
Having only scraped into the field on the second bottom rung, Marhoona became Snitzel’s 23rd Group 1 winner, and his 155th stakes victor worldwide, at 9.6 per cent of runners. In winning the top-flight contest, the filly became the stallion’s 60th juvenile stakes winner and eighth Group 1-winning two-year-old.
In Australia, he has 143 black type victors at 10.3 per cent – a remarkable rate to sustain through 16 crops running.
“He’s a perennial super stallion – that’s all I can say,” Arrowfield boss Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He’ll turn 23 years of age this year and he continues to throw high class animals week after week.
“Three of the past eight Slipper winners; it’s very good. He’s an amazing stallion, a wonderful stallion.
“He’s as good today as he was 15 years ago. I only wish he was half his age.”
Messara, and others at Arrowfield, have been tentatively watching in recent years for signs of decline from the stallion. But while Snitzel is being managed – he’ll likely serve some 80 mares this spring after covering 114 last year – those signs have not appeared.
Snitzel leads the country for stakes winners this season, with Marhoona becoming his 14th – he is now three ahead of the second best.
Entering Saturday fifth on the general sires’ table by earnings, he’s now sprung to the top of the two-year-old premiership, which he won in 2023, 2020, 2018 and 2017 – thanks mainly to Shinzo, Away Game, Estijaab, and Invader respectively.
All of which augurs well, Messara said, for the 43 Snitzels to be offered at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale next month.
“The buyers should be after them at Easter,” said Messara.
“Generally you think with age he’d decline a bit, but he hasn’t. There’s been other cases as well, so he’s not the only one, but his sperm is strong as it was when he first went to stud.
“Time has not wearied him, so we’ll continue to bat on. But we’re taking good care of him. He’ll be serving a much smaller book. If everything’s alright, he’ll probably serve 80 or so mares.”
Marhoona’s success was almost as straightforward as anyone could hope for in the helter-skelter Slipper.
She jumped well from gate six for Lane, who had her fifth on the fence in the run. The filly worked into the open at the 300 metres and dashed clear at the 200 metres, looking very much the winner.
But then appeared the Slipper-hungry McDonald aboard Wodeton (Wootton Bassett). The Coolmore-owned and Chris Waller-trained colt had been race favourite for weeks after his debut victory, and despite running third and second in his two lead-up runs.
Finally, the market jumped off him on raceday, with Wodeton easing late to $7 while punters made Godolphin filly Tempted (Street Boss) a $4.80 favourite.
For several seconds it appeared punters had deserted Wodeton to their loss, as he tore down Marhoona’s outside in the last 100 metres. Ultimately, though, the filly’s break had been too big, and she clung on by 0.14 lengths.
It gave trainer Waller an unfamiliar feeling – going down by tiny margins in three straight Group 1s, following the even narrower seconds of Aeliana (Castelvecchio) in the Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) and Fangirl (Sebring) in the Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m).
Tempted was a further half–length away in third, with jockey Black Shinn declaring she probably should have won.
Punters hadn’t missed Marhoona, who was backed in on the day from $9.50 to $8.
Her victory was a triumph for Freedman, who shared Slipper success with brother Richard with Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) in 2021, and was part of the Freedman team behind elder brother Lee for those unforgettable four straight wins in the race in the 1990s.
Yet the road to the Slipper was far from straightforward.
Something of a late bloomer, Marhoona didn’t trial until January 9, and only debuted on February 8, with an 0.27 length win in an 1100-metre Canterbury maiden. She then ran a 0.33-length second to Tempted in the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in a brave effort, but seemingly too little too late to scramble into the Slipper field.
Despite having just $85,000 to her name, she scraped in – as 15th of 16 – after several contenders above her dropped out. Still, Freedman had his doubts she was ready.
“If I’m being honest, I said to a few people earlier today I thought maybe it would have been nice to have had one more run under our belt,” said Randwick-based Freedman after his third Group 1 as a solo trainer.
“But she’s a special filly.
“When she won at Canterbury, she ripped half a foot off winning that race, and I thought, ‘You’re tough’. She bounced back from it, went to the Reisling a month later, and it’s a bit of an unusual preparation, I guess, going into a Slipper at your third start, but she’s a special filly.
“It’s a huge thrill for my team. I’ve got a lot of young, up-and-coming stars in the industry, I think, and they’ve had such a big part to play in this, probably a lot more than me.”
Marhoona made up for Freedman’s luckless fifth placing last year with yet another Emirates homebred filly in Manaal (Tassort). She franked that effort by winning the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at her next start, also underscoring Freedman’s great knack with juveniles.
“I just try and stay out of their way a little bit, I think,” Freedman told Channel 7. “I think my personal view is good two-year-olds almost train themselves a little bit. You’ve just got to stay out of the way.”
Marhoona is the sixth named foal of the 15-year-old Salma and now ranks as the best – in a hot field.
The mare’s first foal, Trojan Harbour (Harbour Watch), was a Listed winner in South Africa, while her second named foal, Salateen (I Am Invincible), was a Listed winner and Group 2 placed. And next in line Hilal (Fastnet Rock) was a Group 2 winner who was placed at the top level.
Marhoona’s value only grows in light of the fact Salma has missed in her past five covers over the past three years.
Big race specialist Lane was thanking his lucky stars after his first ride on Marhoona, faring far better than Jason Collett, her last-start rider. Collett stuck to Within The Law (Lucky Vega), Bjorn Baker’s $20 shot, who dumped him at the tail of the field after just 400 metres. Neither rider nor horse were injured.
“She was great,” Lane said of Marhoona. “She’s obviously been prepped perfectly for this, just peaking on the day. It’s not often you come up with a plan and execute it perfectly, in Group 1s anyway.
“It really played out how we thought it might and she was great. She just was there to be beaten at the 100 metres and Wodeton got to us. She really stuck at it, so – very brave.”
McDonald was full of praise for $1.6 million colt Wodeton, saying he ran “super – he’s such a good horse”.
Shinn had the race’s hard luck tale aboard Tempted, who loomed but was blocked for a run near the fence at the 200 metres.
“She ran incredibly. I think she should have arguably won the race,” he said. “We momentarily got our run impeded when North England and Bellazaine came together. I think that cost us the race. A tough one to swallow.”