The Sydney racing carnival has come to a close and Golden Slipper winner Farnan remains Timeform’s highest-rated two-year-old in Australia.
Bred by Phoenix Thoroughbreds, who race the colt alongside Aquis Farm, the star juvenile has won five of his six starts capped by his win in the World’s richest two-year-old race. Speaking after his success in the Golden Slipper jockey Hugh Bowman said:
“I’ve been lucky enough to ride some really good horses over my career as everyone knows, but I haven’t ridden a better two-year-old.”
The son of not a single doubt had a relatively low profile start to his career winning a two-year-old handicap at Canberra on debut. A victory in a Magic Millions Classic qualifier at Wyong followed, but an interrupted prep and poor draw put pay to his chances in the Gold Coast ‘Classic’ itself, the only blemish on the colt’s record. Success followed in both the Silver Slipper and Todman stakes, where he showed tremendous tactical versatility before he claimed a historic Golden Slipper for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Farnan isn’t the only two-year-old to appear in Timeform’s top 10 Australian juveniles for the Phoenix/Aquis partnership. Dual Group Three winner and Sires Produce runner-up Prague takes his place at number five in the rankings. The Ciaron Maher and David Eustace training team have had an outstanding season with their youngsters and the son of Redoute’s Choice is the highest rated among them with a mark of 115.
A winner first time out, taking a maiden at Canterbury, the colt jumped straight into Group Three company to claim the Canonbury Stakes. The Pago Pago was added to his CV a few runs later before he put in a career-was was narrowly denied in Randwick’s Sire’s Produce Stakes.
Both horses are now enjoying a well-earned break with exciting Spring campaigns currently being mapped out.