Coolmore Australia’s Home Affairs got his first year with runners off to a flier when Guest House produced a dominant victory in Saturday’s Golden Slipper, the world’s richest two-year-old race, at Rosehill in Sydney.
The seven-year-old stallion had made an instant impact at stud before the all-important Group 1, sitting at the head of the first season sires’ tables in Australia and New Zealand.
In what was widely regarded as an open renewal of the Slipper, the Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr-trained Guest House went into the race with strong credentials. He broke his maiden at Cranbourne in December, before finishing second in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude. The two-year-old then showed his Group 1 potential when making the podium in Caulfield’s Blue Diamond Stakes last month.
Ridden by Zac Lloyd, the colt pulled effortlessly clear to reverse the form with Streisand, winner of the Blue Diamond, beating that filly by a length and a quarter.
The colt has now assured himself a place at stud and will undoubtedly have some of the biggest operations in Australia circling to secure his services once his career on the track is finished.
The victory would be a welcome one for Coolmore, whose operation was rocked when leading stallion Wootton Bassett died while on shuttle duty in Australia last year. They were dealt another blow when So You Think died a month later.
Bred by Torryburn Stud, Home Affairs was bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for A$875,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2020. He opened his account as a juvenile in the Group 2 Silver Slipper and finished eighth in the Golden Slipper later that season.
The son of I Am Invincible cemented his own place at stud with a win in the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes as a three-year-old and added a second elite victory to his CV in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes.
Racing Post Excerpts by Lydia Symonds
Click here to see details of Triple Crown’s Home Affairs x Appian Way filly and Home Affairs x Fill The Page colt which both have limited shares still available. Get involved in racehorse ownership with Triple Crown and Share In Success.