Early Golden Slipper Clues From Rosehill’s Juvenile Features

Kristen Manning

Editor

Last updated: Fri 30 Jan 2026 02:51

Kristen Manning 30 Jan 2026

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Canonbury and Widden Stakes pivotal for Golden Slipper anticipation
Incognito and Miss Scandal favourites in their respective races
Both races have a history of producing Golden Slipper champions

Incognito is a dominant favourite in the Canonbury Stakes. (Getty)

With no clear stand-out performance among this season’s juveniles, we head towards this weekend’s two-year-old races hoping that the Golden Slipper picture will be a little clearer come Saturday evening.

The Boys - The Canonbury Stakes
The Girls - The Widden Stakes

The Group 1 Futures Markets are fluid at this early stage of the season, with Saturday’s juvenile features offering another opportunity for emerging talent to stamp their credentials ahead of the autumn carnivals.

The Boys - The Canonbury Stakes

Current favourite Incognito, a debut winner of the Group 3 Breeders’ Plate (in which the subsequent Group 3 Golden Gift winner Revengeance was third), kicks off his second campaign in the Group 3 Canonbury Stakes at Rosehill — the first of Saturday’s three black-type contests for the babies.

A member of the debut crop of Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside, the $1 million Magic Millions graduate is out of the lightly raced but fast I Am Invincible mare Bleu Zebra, a half-sister to the Listed winner Fox Swift.

Of his six rivals, another two were seven-figure yearlings; Hidrix (a descendant of Emancipation), the full brother to Apocalyptic, was sold at the Easter Yearling Sale for $1.7 million, while Defensemen, from the family of the classy stallion Dutch Art, fetched $1.4 million at the same sale.

Both of those horses are quoted at double-figure odds on Saturday, with the second favourite behind Incognito being another Stay Inside colt — Eviction Notice, a member of the prolific Fanfreluche family whose imported Group 3-placed dam has produced the US Listed winner High Class.

Also being kept safe is Confederation, a Wootton Bassett colt out of the Listed winner Pretty Fast from the family of Slipper winners Ha Ha and Rory’s Jester. The others are also well related; Persian Wonder is a Hello Youmzain half-brother to the UK Listed winner Never Back Down, while Written In Munny is a Written Tycoon son of the imported stakes winner Always Inthe Munny.

The Girls - The Widden Stakes

The following race on the Rosehill card is for the fillies, with the Group 3 Widden Stakes attracting a field of ten, half of whom have already raced.

There are no seven-figure yearlings in that race, with six of the runners raced by their breeders, while another couple were pretty cheap buys in the scheme of things — the $10,000 Portland Sky filly Oregon Coast (out of a city-winning half-sister to Hong Kong Derby winner Ping Hai Star and Wellington Guineas winner Neo) and the $16,000 Russian Revolution filly Krasina (daughter of the Listed winner Sebring Sally from the family of Slipper winner Catbird).

Favourite meanwhile is the $320,000 Karaka graduate Miss Scandal (high in Slipper markets), whose sixth dam Coogee produced Bletchingly, who appears in the pedigree of her sire Home Affairs.

Further back, this is the same Mowerina family as Home Affairs’ high-achieving grandsire Invincible Spirit, and there is also plenty of close-up black-type action in this pedigree, with Miss Scandal being out of a city-winning half-sister to juvenile stakes winner Madeenaty, herself out of a daughter of the triple Group 2 winner Set For Fame.

The race’s second most expensive contestant is the $270,000 Magic Millions buy Miss Chanel, a Tagaloa filly whose stakes-placed dam Talented, by Snitzel, is out of VRC St Leger winner Exceptionally from the family of Slipper heroine Burst.

She is the second favourite, with the next three in the market being Hardanger (a Pinatubo half-sister to the two-time juvenile stakes winner Arcaded from Snitzel’s family), Chilly Girl (a Trapeze Artist daughter of the precocious and very fast stakes winner I Got Chills) and Pearl Of Dubai.

The latter, by Wootton Bassett, is out of the stakes-placed excellent producer Al Anood — dam of the classy stallion Pride Of Dubai, who won two Group 1 features at two, as well as the stakes winners Enaad, Ghaanati and Al Aneed. This is the same family as Miss Scandal, with Al Anood being a half-sister to the dam of Invincible Spirit.

The other runners also have strong pedigrees. Tatiana, by Street Boss, is out of the Group 3 winner Jorda, whose three-year-old Motorsports (also by Street Boss) won at Group 3 level last spring. Cool Art, by Cool Aza Beel, is a half-sister to the Group 2 sprinter Beau Rossa, while Machrihanish is a Stay Inside daughter of the imported stakes winner I’llhandalthecash.

Both of these Sydney juvenile contests have produced Golden Slipper victors, with recent winners of the Widden Stakes including Lady Of Camelot, Mossfun and Overreach, while the male winners on this day have not been quite as forward — the last Canonbury/Slipper winner being Vancouver in 2015 and, before him, Sebring in 2008.