Time To Think About The Golden Slipper

3 minute read

High class colt Time To Reign is half way to emulating his older half-sister She Will Reign after confirming his rating as a leader of the 2YO crop with his dominant win in the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.

Time To Reign is a half-brother to the 2017 Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign and apart from his pedigree has plenty more in common with that outstanding filly.

Warwick Farm trainer Gary Portelli prepared She Will Reign for syndicators Darby Racing and the same team are behind Time To Reign – with extensions.

She Will Reign, who won the Silver Slipper Stakes-Golden Slipper Stakes double in 2017, is by Manhattan Rain while Time To Reign’s sire Time For War passed away in December after just two seasons at stud.

Time For War, a son of Snitzel, also raced for a Darby Racing syndicate so it was no surprise that principal Scot Darby were eager to buy his first crop half-brother to She Will Reign from the Charge Forward mare Courgette when he was offered as a yearling at the Gold Coast.

The big difference between the siblings was the sale ring price. While She Will Reign cost a mere $20,000 Darby had to go to $325,000 to secure Time To Reign when he was offered in 2018.

She Will Reign, now at stud in Japan where she will be served this year by Deep Impact, retired with earnings of $3.206 million after winning six races including the G1 Golden Slipper and G1 Moir Stakes.

Her wins also included the Silver Slipper during her 2YO winning streak that culminated with her Golden Slipper success.

Time To Reign is heading down the same path and after Saturday’s Silver Slipper win his purchase price as a yearling is looking good value, especially for Hunter Valley stud farm Kitchwin Hills.

Time To Reign has now won three of his four starts and has banked more than $300,000 with his value as a stallion prospect set to soar if he can put a G1 win on the board by the end of the season.

Kitchwin Hills stood Time For War, who retired as a dual G2 winner of the Pago Pago Stakes and BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes, and wisely took up a good slice in Time To Reign earlier this season with a view to eventually adding him to its stallion roster.

However nobody was more relieved on Saturday than Gary Portelli, who was shocked when Time To Reign missed a place as a hot favourite when he resumed on a heavy track at Warwick Farm earlier in the month.

His clear cut Silver Slipper win over Godolphin’s boom colt Tassort restored Portelli’s belief that he has another Golden Slipper winner in his stable, an opinion he has held almost from the time he first saw the colt in the paddocks at Yarraman Park Stud at Scone.

When Portelli first saw Time To Reign as a yearling he was so impressed by the youngster that he quickly contacted the She Will Reign syndicate advising them to re-group and prepare to bid for the colt at the 2018 Magic Millions sale.

“I told them they should all think about ‘stumping’ up and try to buy this colt,’’ Portelli related.

“At the sale he paraded like we wanted him to. He was a bit on the small side but that probably helped us get him as there were relations to Group 2 and Group 3 winners at that sale going for double what we got him for.”

Scot Darby admitted buying Time To Reign for $325,000 was at the limit of Darby Racing’s business model and only a few of the big She Will Reign had invested in the colt.

“We’ve got limits on syndication. We mustered up a heap of existing clients to give us a bit of a push in spending the bigger money,” Darby said.

Among the connections are his breeder Garry Bachell, who bred the colt and She Will Reign from Courgette with his late wife CP Ewe.

Saturday’s win was tinged with sadness as CP, as she was known to all connected with the horses, passed away two weeks ago.

"It’s been a pretty emotional time. CP was diagnosed with a terminal illness and we all knew she had very little time to live,” Darby said.

Darby said physical comparisons between Time To Reign and She Will Reign were poles apart.

“The similarities are minimal apart from their precocity,” he said.

"He's a different sort of horse all together, he is very athletic.

“I would describe him as a typical Snitzel line horse. He's got good leg underneath him."

The Time To Reign team now have plenty of time to dwell on history in the run up to the Golden Slipper on March 23.

Foremost in the thoughts will be the fact that only two siblings have won Golden Slippers, those fine brothers Skyline and Sky High completing the family double in 1958 and 1960.

They can take heart that the Silver Slipper has a fine record as being perhaps the most reliable guide to the big race. Since 2012 four youngsters have won the double.

Courgette, herself a multiple 2YO winner, is also the dam of the 3YO filly Rosina Kojonup, a daughter of Shamus Award who sold for $425,000 as yearling in 2017 and has won two of her four starts for the Bjorn Baker stable.

Courgette is a daughter of the unraced Marscay mare Our Farm Girl, a sister to Listed Gimcrack Stakes winner Millie and half-sister to Listed winner Touch Of Sun.

Yarraman Park will also be offering a yearling filly by Time For War from Courgette for Gary Bachel this Easter.