LEES READY TO GIVE MILLENNIUM WINNER HIS SLIPPER CHANCE

KRIS Lees has had only one Golden Slipper Stakes runner in his near three decades of training.

That was $101 chance Elimbari, who tailed the field home in Melbourne filly Crystal Lily’s 2010 edition.

Now 15 years later and nearly 50 years after his late father Max won the 1977 Slipper with the “colossal colt from the coalfields” Luskin Star, who became the first two-year-old to win Sydney’s juvenile grand slam also featuring the Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) and Champagne Stakes (1600m), the leading Newcastle trainer, with 17 Group 1 triumphs already to his credit, has a goal to win the world’s richest two-year-old classic.

And with a stylish young colt bearing the name of a famous former footballer, who knew all about scoring goals of his own.

An attacking midfielder, Roberto Rivellino was a key member of Brazil’s 1970 FIFA World Cup team, which defeated Italy 4-1 in the final.

The equine Rivellino knows how to attack as well, and as in his debut victory at Royal Randwick on January 4, did the same there yesterday to take the $2m Inglis Millennium (1100m).

Ridden by James McDonald, the well supported $4 second favorite overcame a wide alley and powered down the outside in the straight to defeat the previously unbeaten Within The Law ($5.50) and Artistic Venture ($21).

“I could see him in the Golden Slipper for sure,” Lees said.

“He is probably better suited at 1400 and 1600m, but if he gets a solid pace as he did in the Millennium, he could still be sharp enough at 1200m.”

Lees had unsuccessfully attempted to qualify his former champion Samantha Miss in two lead-ups for the 2008 Slipper. She ran third in the Sweet Embrace Stakes, and fourth in the Magic Night Stakes before finishing second to Slipper winner Sebring in the Sires, and then turned the tables in the Champagne, stopping that colt from emulating Luskin Star’s grand slam.

The $5m Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m) will be run at Rosehill Gardens on March 22, and Rivellino is now a firming $26 chance, with Wodeton a dominant $3.50 favorite.

“It’s not set in concrete yet, but we might go to the Skyline Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on March 1,” Lees said.

The $300,000 Group 2 Skyline for colts and geldings provides the winner with exemption from any Slipper ballot.

Whilst Rivellino earned $1.155m yesterday, only a small portion of that counts towards prizemoney when the Slipper field is determined, as the Millennium was a restricted race for eligible Inglis graduates.

Hence winning one of the Slipper lead-ups such as the Skyline or Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m), also at Randwick a week later, is vital to ensure a berth in the March 22 line-up.

Lees will require a new rider for Rivellino if he goes to the Slipper, as McDonald is committed to warm favorite Wodeton after partnering the colt to a brilliant near four lengths’ romp over 1100m at Rosehill on January 18.

Lees and bloodstock agent Justin Bahen paid $180,000 for Rivellino, a son of Too Darn Hot, from the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft at the Inglis Classic yearling sale 12 months ago.

He is the second foal of the So You Think mare Intrinsic, whom Lees prepared to win three races (including one at Doomben). She also ran Listed fourths in both the 2019 Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich and Ramornie Handicap at Grafton.

Rivellino’s breeders Scott Murray and Brian and Pat Ireland stayed in him, and the syndicate also includes Peter O’Brien, general manager of the Hunter Valley’s Segenhoe Stud, where the colt was bred and raised.

So too Lees’ close mate Edward Throsby, whose familiar red and green hoops and green cap of the Throsby family, were worn by McDonald yesterday.

After Lees took out his licence in 1996, his first winner was for Throsby – Cherokee Lass, who he had purchased after five starts for two minor placings in New Zealand.

Cherokee Lass, ridden by Neil Rae, won a 900m Maiden Handicap at Broadmeadow on September 28, 1996, nudging the late Newcastle trainer Charlie Porter’s Mr. Mercedes in a tense finish.

“Edward was a bookmaker then fielding on the rails,” Lees recalled.

“He didn’t think Cherokee Lass could win and I did, so I backed it with him.”

Nearly 30 years later, you could say he has well and truly “squared the ledger”!

. HOOFNOTE: Lees added another win to his season’s tally today when former UK gelding El Jasor ($9.50), racing in the Australian Bloodstock colours, took the Class 2 Handicap (1800m) at the Sunshine Coast at his first start since early September.

Story John Curtis, February 9, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos

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