The Slipper Fits Pivotal

As the field takes shape for the world's richest 2-year-old race, the A$3.5-million G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, a few predictable names will be prominent among the pedigrees of the key contenders: I Am Invincible (Aus) and his late studmate Hinchinbrook (Aus); Danehill and his sons Redoute's Choice (Aus), Fastnet Rock (Aus) and Snitzel (Aus), and Vinery's evergreen shuttler More Than Ready.

A somewhat surprising inclusion among these is Pivotal (GB). The Slipper features a pair of runners conceived in Europe-just the second time this has happened since 2010-and Pivotal is a key player in the pedigrees of both: See You Soon (Aus) is by Pivotal's leading young sire son Siyouni (Fr), and Hungry Heart (Aus) is out of the Pivotal mare Harlech (GB).

The only other European-conceived runner in the Slipper in the past decade was Woodpark Stud's Aylmerton (Aus) (Siyouni {Fr}) in 2018-he finished a disappointing 10th off a scintillating win in the G2 Todman S.-and the team that produced him is back again with the filly See You Soon (Aus) (Siyouni {Fr}). Woodpark Stud is owned by prominent Sydney-based attorney Dr. David Chaikin, with French expat Jean-Pierre Dubois at the helm as trainer and stud manager. The team has been an outspoken believer in the Aga Khan's Normandy-based Siyouni (who has never shuttled), sending him quality mares on Southern Hemisphere time. Aylmerton's dam Aloona (Smart Strike) was acquired privately after a racing career in which she won one of five starts, and Aylmerton is her first foal. It is a compliment to Siyouni, Aylmerton and the Woodpark program that Coolmore saw fit to buy half the colt after he had won the Todman.

See You Soon's dam, Soneva (by Cherokee Run, Darley's late champion sprinter by Runaway Groom), won the G3 Prix d'Aumale at two, the G3 Prix de Lieurey at three and the G3 Cape Verdi at four, all over a mile. Her best-known foal thus far is the Qatari champion The Blue Eye (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), but See You Soon would eclipse him with a win at Rosehill. Soneva's first mating with Siyouni came in 2015, which resulted in an unraced French-bred filly for Aleyrion Bloodstock, and the following season Soneva headed back to Haras de Bonneval on Southern Hemisphere time before being shipped to Australia for new owner Woodpark Stud with See You Soon in utero.

See You Soon's family is one that has worked around the globe: in addition to The Blue Eye and See You Soon, the page features under the third dam the American Grade III winner Hessonite (Freud); New Zealand champion fillies and Classic winners King's Rose (NZ) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) and Anabandana (Aus) (Anabaa) and the former's Japanese Group 3-winning son Satono Arthur (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). See You Soon was a debut winner at Randwick in October over Dame Giselle (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) and has since been second to that rival in the A$1-million Golden Gift and more recently the G2 Reisling S. on Mar. 7.

Siyouni has had three winners from three runners in Australia, all homebreds for Woodpark trained by Dubois. In addition to Aylmerton and See You Soon is Persepolis (Aus), who broke her maiden at first asking at two last April.

See You Soon is joined in the Slipper starting gate by Yulong Investments' Hungry Heart. Yulong, through Australian-based agent Sheamus Mills, purchased Hungry Heart's dam, Harlech (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), for 60,000gns from the Godolphin draft at the 2016 Tattersalls July Sale as a 3-year-old, Harlech having started once for trainer Saeed bin Suroor. Harlech was sent to Frankel (GB) on Southern Hemisphere time before being exported, and was offered carrying Hungry Heart at the following June's Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. In what is now looks like an especially astute move, Yulong bought Harlech back for A$500,000. Hungry Heart herself went through the ring at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, but was bought back by Yulong for A$300,000. Since producing Hungry Heart, Harlech has foaled a yearling colt and a filly foal both by Snitzel (Aus).

Hungry Heart didn't make a public appearance until Jan. 11, when she was second in a Flemington allowance, and she returned to Chris Waller's Sydney base to break her maiden in the Feb. 29 G2 Sweet Embrace S. She is bred on the same cross as Group 1 winners Cracksman (GB) and Veracious (GB), and Yulong's Chief Operating Officer Sam Fairgray said it was the broodmare sire that drew Yulong owner Yuesheng Zhang to Harlech in the Tattersalls ring.

“Mr. Zhang likes Pivotal,” Fairgray said. “That would have been the main reason why he went after her. It turns out that Cracksman is out of a Pivotal mare as well, and it's very exciting to have a filly by Frankel running in the Golden Slipper.”

Like Siyouni, Frankel has a high strike rate from low numbers Down Under. He has had 15 winners from 22 runners in Australia and three stakes winners for a strike rate of 13.5% stakes winners to runners. Those other stakes winners are the G2 Tea Rose S. (1400m) winner Miss Fabulass (Aus) (who was second in last weekend's G1 Coolmore Classic), out of a Redoute's Choice mare, and Finche (GB), who was bred by Juddmonte in Newmarket and is out of a daughter of Woodman.

Finche won a pair of group races going 10 and 12 furlongs in France at three and four before being partially sold and expatriated to join Chris Waller, where he has been twice placed in pattern company. Eminent (Ire) was another to start his career in the North before relocating to Australia, where he was second in the G1 Ranvet S. Frankel received a select group of top-class Australian mares to Southern Hemisphere time in his first year at stud, resulting in the likes of the Group 3-placed Merovee (Aus) and the winning Woman (Aus) for John Singleton's Strawberry Hill Stud.

Yulong offers five yearlings by Frankel at the Inglis Easter yearling sale on Apr. 7 and 8, and a good showing by Hungry Heart this weekend would be a great boost to their profiles.

“Mr. Zhang loves Frankel and for three years he bred five or six mares to him so we have yearlings going to the Inglis Easter sale by Frankel, and we have foals on the ground by Frankel,” Fairgray said. “It's an experiment Mr. Zhang has tried, getting the mares in foal to Frankel and bringing them out here and it's great that Hungry Heart is from the first crop of that experiment.”

Fairgray said Mr. Zhang has also supported Kingman (GB) and Siyouni with a mare or two, and last Southern Hemisphere breeding season he sent three mares to Lope De Vega (Ire) that are now in Australia.

That brings us back to the granddaddy, Pivotal. While he never shuttled, a stallion who has made such an impact across all realms was always likely to eventually have an influence Down Under. His exported progeny include two stakes winners in Australasia from 18 runners (9%), headed by the Group 1 Tancred S., Ranvet S. and George Main S. victor Avilius (GB), who is out of a daughter of Sunday Silence. As a broodmare sire Pivotal is responsible for 11% stakes winners to runners (six stakes winners from 66 runners) in Australasia; in addition to Hungry Heart those include Group 1 winners The United States (Ire) and Polarisation (GB), who are out of daughters of Galileo and Echo of Light (GB), respectively.

Now 27, Pivotal is still active at Cheveley Park Stud in Newmarket, covering a very select book of around 30 mares for a private fee. Cheveley Park Managing Director Chris Richardson confirmed that after covering four or five mares already this season, he had his first scanned in foal on Monday. “He looks like he's continuing where he left off last year, although he covers a book of only about 30,” Richardson said. “He's certainly in good heart, thankfully.”

The Golden Slipper-not Australia's most famous race, but probably its most coveted among stallion masters-has never been won by a horse conceived in the Northern Hemisphere, and with two such horses with legitimate claims likely to line up on Mar. 21, history hangs in the balance.