Upwardly mobile Baker stable hoping to add another string to Golden Slipper bow
Bjorn Baker is confident Strada Varenna (Street Boss) can prove herself worthy of the upper echelons of his surging stable when she seeks to qualify as his second runner in the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Warwick Farm trainer has struck a phenomenal vein of form this season, and this year in particular. Less than two-thirds of the way through 2024-25, Baker has 115 wins, just shy of his record for a whole season of 128, in 2019-20.
In Sydney metro calculations, he’s had 63 wins to take a stranglehold on the coveted second spot behind his ostensibly unbeatable fellow expat New Zealander Chris Waller, who’s on 94. Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott sit third on 40.
Baker’s new stables, opened last year, are a heady place to be at present, with a host of stars in its slick confines, and with a vastly improved two-year-old profile this season in particular.
In terms of Sydney’s two-year-old powerhouses, Baker hasn’t traditionally been one of the first trainers springing to mind. He’s had just the two Slipper starters, Windjammer who ran ninth (Bernardini) in 2013 and Unencumbered (Testa Rossa), who finished one place lower in tenth a year later.
All that has changed, amid much else, this season.
O’ Ole (Ole Kirk) won the Gold Coast’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) in January, having won Wyong’s lead-up event two runs earlier.
While that filly is enjoying a well-earned spell, stablemate Within The Law (Lucky Vega) sits high in Slipper markets, as a $9 joint-third favourite, having won three of her four starts. That included securing her spot in Saturday week’s $5 million feature by winning Randwick’s Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on March 1.
Despite shining as one of the most impressive winners in Sydney’s first official two-year-old barrier trials at Kensington last September, Strada Varenna has still not earned her Slipper ticket.
She was entered for Sydney’s juvenile fillies’ kick-off – the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) in October – but was scratched on race morning after being found with a high temperature.
Baker sent her for a spell, after which she’s returned with two trials and a debut victory in an 1100-metre two-year-old maiden at Canterbury on February 28.
Strada Varenna – the seventh foal of out of Group 2 winner Varenna Miss (Redoute’s Choice), herself a half-sister to Group 1 winners Criterion (Sebring) and Comin’ Through (Fastnet Rock) – currently sits equal 56th on the Slipper order of entry.
But this Saturday she can secure qualification by winning the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), and Baker is hopeful she will add to his stable’s dizzying momentum in the Group3 contest, for which she’s favourite at around $3.30.
“She’s a very nice filly with a good pedigree,” Baker told ANZ Bloodstock News. “She showed her quality early on by winning at the two-year-old trials. She had to be scratched from the Gimcrack, but she was put out and given time and that seems to have paid off.
“We’re very happy with her at the moment, and looking forward to Saturday.”
Despite her glowing pedigree, Strada Varenna was bought by Newgate Bloodstock for a relatively cheap $100,000 at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast – sold with a “windsucker” warning which appears to have limited her none. Newgate race the filly in conjunction with the Ladbrokes Racing Club, whose colours of red with a white sash she bears.
“She looks like she’s a pretty good value purchase at this stage,” Baker said.
The muscular filly has barrier six of 14 on Saturday, with Jason Collett again aboard after a debut win which, despite coming in a Friday night Canterbury maiden, Baker says was full of merit.
“The Canterbury race just fitted in, in terms of where she was at,” he said. “But it was a good effort that night. She had to work early and cross them from the outside gate of ten. She showed good natural speed, and was very strong late.
“These races in the lead-up to the Slipper, like the Magic Night, are always tough, but Jason rode her in trackwork on Tuesday morning, and said she was very good. I think the 1200 metres should suit her, she was dominant on debut, so I’m hoping she’ll run well.”
However, since Strada Varenna would be qualifying at the last chance, with only a week before the Slipper, Baker said it was not certain that she would back up in the world’s richest two-year-old race.
“If she won and recovered well, the Slipper is an option,” he said. “We’d have to talk to connections and she’d have to recover well to press on to the Slipper.”
Like their price tags – with O’ Ole costing $325,000 and Within The Law just $30,000 – Baker said his three leading two-year-old fillies were “all different in their own way”.
“Within The Law is so relaxed and casual. O’ Ole was always sharper from day one. Strada Varenna is different again, she’s benefited from her time off,” he said.
“Obviously, Saturday is another step up for her, but I’ve had an amazing year with my two year olds, and two-year-old fillies in particular, and I’m hoping this filly can step up to stakes grade as well.”
Promising “a couple of nice unexposed two-year-olds” in his stable’s wings, and a dual trial–winning colt in Invincible Phantom (I Am Invincible) who’s debuting as a $2.50 favourite at Randwick Kensington on Thursday, Baker seems poised to continue his upward trajectory, whether he has two Slipper runners or one.
Baker, who has 166 named horses on his books, attributed his stunning season to a range of factors, including improved stabling and less trading to Hong Kong.
“As a trainer I’m very proud; we’re getting most of our horses to compete to the best of their ability,” he said. “It’s down to many different things.
“I’ve invested heavily in infrastructure in the last 15 to 18 months, and I think that’s definitely paying off.
“Warwick Farm can get very hot, and our stables are very cool, and temperature controlled with fans. And we’ve got a treadmill there that we utilise a lot smarter than we were initially, which has helped with horses like Our Anchorage.
“I’ve no doubt we’ve got a better team of horses now. I’ve always done a fair bit of trading with Hong Kong, but I haven’t done so much of that lately.
“One year, I came third in the premiership, and that year I sold about a dozen horses to Hong Kong. So I did regret that, because it was very close for second.
“I just think with the prize–money and Racing NSW going so well, it’s getting harder and harder to justify selling horses. I’m probably more confident that we’re better off getting a return in Sydney, rather than selling now.”
Baker also paid credit to his staff, and his stable’s Sydney focus.
“We’ve definitely sharpened up some of our procedures, and Warwick Farm is a good place to train,” he said. “You can go north, south, east and west from there, and we’re able to place our horses very well.
“I’ve got a team which is very much hands-on at Warwick Farm. We haven’t spread our base far and wide like with some of the satellite stables, so we tend to know our horses inside out, and we know the form of Sydney races in particular inside out.
“We’re very much Sydney-centric, and I think that’s paying dividends.
“And I think particularly over summer I tend to have a run, and I tend to have sound horses. We look after the horses first and foremost. We’ve got a great big team, including [head veterinarian] Allan Frogley, and with the first sign of any problems we tend to put the horses out and take a long-term approach.
“We’ve got pretty good systems and we tend to run it efficiently. It’s working very well at the moment.”
Strada Varenna heads Magic Night betting from John O’Shea and Tom Charlton’s $3.90 shot Artistic Venture (Trapeze Artist), a three-start maiden who ran fifth in the Sweet Embrace, and Waller’s $9 hope Karinska (Spirit Of Boom), who won a Canterbury maiden on debut before a Sweet Embrace seventh.