3 minute read
High-priced colt looking to emulate his granddam this weekend.
When James Harron paid $1.6 million for Bodyguard at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, it was in the hope he'd become a Golden Slipper contender.
That $5 million event, which will be run at Rosehill this Saturday, is a race the son of I Am Invincible's family has a strong link to.
The Emirates Park-bred colt is the first foal out of the Fastnet Rock mare Tumooh, whose dam is 2014 Golden Slipper heroine Mossfun.
Those bloodlines, combined with his physical attributes, made Bodyguard exactly the type of yearling that Harron and his colts syndicate are looking for.
"He's the horse that, when we first saw him here, we just really wanted to get him," Harron said shortly after the hammer fell at that Gold Coast sale.
"There's a lot of water to go under the bridge but I just couldn't say better things about him as a type and his attitude."
Bodyguard got his career off to the perfect start in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes at Flemington in October, resumed with a win in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude on February 10 before a fourth placing in the Group 2 Todman Stakes on March 9.
Bodyguard is the most expensive yearling engaged in this year's Golden Slipper and one of four seven-figure youngsters in the field of 16 plus one emergency.
That reserve, Espionage, is another of Harron's big buys with the Zoustar colt having cost $1 million on the Gold Coast.
That was the same sale Kia Ora Stud and TFI paid $1.1 million for Exceed And Excel filly Eneeza, while Snitzel colt Switzerland cost Tom Magnier $1.5 million at last year's Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
Any of that quartet, plus three other runners, will become the most expensive colt to win the Slipper if successful this Saturday.
Estijaab, a $1.7 million Inglis Easter yearling is the most expensive yearling to have won the Slipper, but Farnan is the highest-priced colt at $550,000.
As Racing And Sports does with each race, the purchase prices and sibling report for this year's Gold Slipper is available via the Form Guide page of the website.
This year's Golden Slipper runners and their purchase price
1 – STORM BOY (Justify x Pelican): $460,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
2 – FULLY LIT (Hellbent x Sunlit): $60,000 Inglis Classic
3 – SHANGRI LA EXPRESS (Alabama Express x Sent From Above): $220,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
4 – RUE DE ROYALE (Per Incanto x Urban Royale): $180,000 Inglis Classic
5 – TRAFFIC WARDEN (Street Boss x Efficiently): Not offered for sale
6 – STRAIGHT CHARGE (Written By x Matryoshka): $270,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
7 – SWITZERLAND (Snitzel x Ms Bad Behavior): $1,500,000 Inglis Easter
8 – BODYGUARD (I Am Invincible x Tumooh): $1,600,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
9 – DUBLIN DOWN (Exceedance x Dublin Lass): $370,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
10 – COLEMAN (Pierata x Sboog): $550,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
11 – HOLMES A COURT (Capitalist x Menagerie): $850,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
12 – PROST (Snitzel x Samarmeteors): $650,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
13 – HAYASUGI (Royal Meeting x China Road): $47,500 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale
14 – LADY OF CAMELOT (Written Tycoon x Miss Debutante): Not offered for sale
15 – MANAAL (Tassort x Red Lodge): Not offered for sale
16 – ENEEZA (Exceed And Excel x Sweet Sherry): $1,100,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
17em – ESPIONAGE (Zoustar x In Times Of War): $1,000,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale
