Estijaab Supreme In Slipper Score

Estijaab | Bronwen Healy

One year ago, Rosehill Gardens was rocked by the victory of the rags to riches, A$20,000 filly She Will Reign (Aus) (Manhattan Rain {Aus}) in the G1 Golden Slipper.

This year's Slipper winner, Estijaab (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), has no such Cinderella story.

Emirates Park's 2-year-old filly was always meant to be great: she had the looks, the pedigree, the price tag and the race record, and on Saturday she put it all together to deliver a front-running victory in the world's richest race for juveniles. It was a second Slipper win in four years for the Emirates Park/Hawkes Racing combination, the first coming with another filly, Mossfun (Aus) (Mossman {Aus}), in 2014. Like Mossfun, Estijaab also led home a trifecta of fillies. Coming in behind her on Saturday were the Tony McEvoy-trained pair of Oohood (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}) and Sunlight (Aus) (Zoustar {Aus}).

'TDN Rising Star' Estijaab caught a flyer under Brenton Avdulla from barrier 17 and was able to swiftly cross over to the fence. The post time favourite and G1 Blue Diamond S. winner Written By (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}) stalked her three-quarters of a length in arrears with Gai Waterhouse's Santos (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}), looking to give her a seventh Slipper win and the all-out record, breathing down his neck. The early favourite and previously unbeaten Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Sunlight (Aus) (Zoustar {Aus}) sat in the two path about three lengths off the pace, with her stablemate and eventual runner-up Oohood about three lengths further back and between horses with recent Coolmore acquisition and G2 Todman S. winner Aylmerton (Aus) (Siyouni {Fr}) to her inside.

Meanwhile, Avdulla was able to control the pace aboard Estijaab and sat motionless as they turned for home, and the filly dug deep when pressured by Written By and Sunlight on her outside and Oohood on the rail. The hard luck Oohood, amazingly still a maiden but also third in the G1 Blue Diamond S., came with a late surge but Estijaab found the line a short neck to the good.

Avdulla, who was winning his first Slipper, told the Racing NSW press team, “It's very emotional, I've put in a lot of hard work with the stable and they are very loyal John, Michael and Wayne [Hawkes]. Ever since I've been on this girl since day dot she's given me a special feel. You dream of riding Golden Slipper winners; when I was 15 and starting apprentice school I was the biggest in the class and they said I had 12 months in the saddle and then I was going back to school. I've just won a Slipper. I don't know what to say.”

Estijaab was providing John Hawkes, father of training partners Michael and Wayne, with his fourth Slipper win, and it was the second for the younger Hawkeses. John Hawkes, who saddled Guineas to win the 1997 Slipper for Bob Ingham's Woodlands Stud and Forensics 10 years later for the same connections, told Racing NSW post-race, “It's a great effort, with the boys and the family. Emirates are great people, they've been loyal supporters. They put a lot of money into the game and it is great to see them get a result.”

Of Estijaab, he added, “She's such a professional, she was asleep in the stalls and 2-year-olds don't do that. Her gate speed is unbelievable and that's her attribute. They are all individuals and we just take them as they come.”

A very emotional Wayne Hawkes was full of praise for Avdulla's ride.

“She drew the outside barrier and for Brenton to do what he did, he summed it up very well; the greatest shot if you haven't seen it is the overhead shot, it was amazing. To see how she jumped so clean and so easy, she just put two lengths on them straight away. He didn't roar across, he just took his time, it was a winning ride.”

Oohood ran the fastest final 200 metres, :11.72 to Estijaab's :12.03, and trainer Tony McEvoy said, “She just got a spot back further than we wanted. She tried very hard and just wasn't good enough on the day. Oohood was super, and I think that confirmed how well she has been running without luck in Melbourne and she was fantastic. If she pulls up well we will go to the Sires' and Sunlight will go for a break. She's done an amazing job, she presented and ran her heart out for us.”

Estijaab was making her fourth start in the Slipper and she has won three of those. She earned her TDN Rising Star tag with a four-length first-out victory at Randwick on Jan. 20, and was second to Sunlight in the G2 Silver Slipper after setting a relentless pace while pestered by another rival. Estijaab was back on a winning track in the G2 Reisling S. on Mar. 10. In just four starts she has now bankrolled over A$2-million, and so perhaps Emirates Park will be able to return to this year's Easter Sale in two weeks' time with a slightly bigger budget than they had last year.

Pedigree Notes…

Emirates Park's Hussain Lootah admitted at Easter last year that they had spent their entire budget on Estijaab when signing at A$1.7-million for the filly from the Arrowfield draft, and she was indeed their only buy at the sale. Estijaab was the second most expensive filly at that sale-just A$100,000 shy of the price tag of a Redoute's Choice (Aus) half-sister to Group 1 winner English (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus})-and she was the priciest of Saturday's Slipper runners, with 17 of the 20 (including emergencies) having gone through a sales ring. Estijaab has, technically, gone through the ring twice: her dam, the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke S. and G1 Robert Sangster S. winner Response (Aus) (Charge Forward {Aus}), was bought by Katsumi Yoshida from Newgate Farm while carrying Estijaab for A$1.5-million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2015. SF Bloodstock had signed for Response for A$840,000 at Inglis's Australian Broodmare Sale in 2012 and while that isn't a small sum, in addition to selling her on for seven figures they also sold her first foal, the stakes-placed Alter Call (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus})-also a 'TDN Rising Star'–for A$1.05-million at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2013. The A$350,000 that Peter Moody spent on a full-sister to Estijaab at this year's Gold Coast sale now looks like money very well spent, and the mare has another weanling filly by Snitzel and is in foal to the champion sire once again.

Estijaab is the first Golden Slipper winner for the reigning champion sire and multiple record-breaking Snitzel, and interestingly Arrowfield's stallion also featured as the broodmare sire of Emirates Park's other Slipper winner, Mossfun. Estijaab is Snitzel's 13th Group 1 winner and fourth this season, joining Trapeze Artist (Aus) (Golden Rose), Redzel (Aus) (Darley Classic) and Russian Revolution (Aus) (Oakleigh Plate). She is one of seven Group 1 winners by Snitzel sold as a yearling by Arrowfield, and she is the seventh Slipper winner bred and/or sold by John Messara's nursery, joining Danzero (Aus) (Danehill) (1994), Flying Spur (Aus) (Danehill) (1995), Catbird (Aus) (Danehill) (1999), Belle du Jour (Aus) (Dehere) (2000), Miss Finland (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) (2006) and the aforementioned Forensics.

“The Golden Slipper has shaped Australia racing, as it has shaped Arrowfield,” said Messara, the man responsible for getting the breed-defining Danehill to Australia. “I couldn't be prouder to produce the third generation Slipper winner in Estijaab, with her sire Snitzel following his sire Redoute's Choice and grandsire Danehill in Arrowfield's rich legacy.”

Estijaab becomes the second straight Slipper winner out of a mare by Charge Forward, and that former Arrowfield resident, a Slipper runner-up himself, is also the broodmare sire of Sunlight, as well as Group 3 winner Limestone (Aus) (Helmet {Aus}).

Emirates Park Stud in the Hunter Valley was founded in the late 1980s by the Dubaian Nasser Lootah, father of Hussain Lootah, and stallions currently standing at the farm include Al Maher, Dream Ahead and Artie Schiller.

Saturday, Rosehill, Australia
GOLDEN SLIPPER S.-G1, A$3,539,500, ATC, 3-24, 2yo, Open Set Weight, 1200mT, 1:12.01, Soft.
1–ESTIJAAB, 54.5, f, 2, by Snitzel
1st Dam: Response (MG1SW-Aus, A$836,575), by Charge Forward
2nd Dam: Live it Up, by Match Winner (FR)
3rd Dam: Relive, by King Hadrian (AUS)
'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GROUP 1 WIN. (A$1,700,000 Ylg 2017
WI Sydney Easter Yearling Sale) O-Emirates Park (Mgr: N A H
Lootah); B-Arrowfield Group Pty Ltd NSW; T-M, W & J Hawkes;
J-B Avdulla; A$2,039,500. Lifetime Record: 4-3-1-0,
A$2,335,075. *1/2 to Alter Call (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}),
SP-Aus. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Oohood, 54.5, f, 2, I Am Invincible–Bella Sunday, by Sunday
Silence (USA). O/B-Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al
Maktoum; T-Tony McEvoy; J-Z Purton; A$600,000.
3–Sunlight, 54.5, f, 2, Zoustar–Solar Charged, by Charge
Forward. O-Mrs L Fung, Ms R C Parker, Mrs I E Mitchell, Mrs K
L Thompson, Mrs R J Fletcher, Miss S R Fletcher, Miss J R
Fletcher, Miss H Wall & G1g Racing & Breeding (Mgr: Mrs T L
Vogel); B-Widden Stud Australia Pty Ltd NSW; T-Tony McEvoy;
J-L Currie; A$300,000.
Margins: 0.2 len, 1.5 len, 1.8 len. Odds: 7.50, 16.00, 4.00.
Also Ran: Written By, Seabrook (NZ), Long Leaf, Fiesta, Sandbar, Sizzling Belle, Aylmerton, Secret Lady, Ef Troop, Santos, Performer, Qafila, Prairie Fire.
Click for the Racing Post result. Click for the free Arion.co.nz catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO.

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