There isn’t much Ciaron Maher hasn’t achieved in racing but one box he is yet to tick is winning a Golden Slipper.
Scott Darby, director of syndicators Darby Racing, is hoping Sweet Embrace Stakes winner Spicy Miss is the one to change that at Rosehill on Saturday.
“We did tell him after the Sweet Embrace we could fix that for him,” Darby quipped.
“I’m really happy for Ciaron to have a runner in it as well, and I think we’re a really good show from that barrier (five).”
A $150,000 Magic Millions yearling, Spicy Miss is by successful stallion Trapeze Artist and has been a model of consistency with a win and two seconds from her three starts.
After beating all but Revengeance in the Golden Gift (1100m) in November, she resumed with a runner-up finish behind Agrarian Girl in the Lonhro Plate (1000m) on February 7 before racing handy to the speed and proving too strong in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (1200m).
She heads into Saturday’s $5 million Golden Slipper (1200m) off a three-week break between runs and has drawn ideally in barrier five, a gate that has produced two winners in the past 18 years – Lady Of Camelot (2023) and Sebring (2008).
Darby has already tasted Slipper glory as the syndicator of 2017 winner She Will Reign, a year after Yankee Rose finished runner-up to Capitalist.
Those fillies had different lead-ins, She Will Reign claiming the Silver Slipper (1100m) en route, while Yankee Rose was first-up, and Darby said Spicy Miss was profiled similarly to the latter.
“Not She Will Reign vibes, more Yankee Rose vibes,” he said.
“She’s got a similar barrier and similar to Yankee Rose, she is very tough.”
The Golden Slipper performances of both She Will Reign and Yankee Rose helped to cement Darby Racing among Australia’s leading syndicators and the organisation is now in its 18th year of operation.
Since then, they have celebrated big race success with the likes of 2023 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Ozzmosis, two-time The Quokka hero Overpass and recent Newmarket Handicap hero Caballus.
Along with Spicy Miss, their Rosehill runners include equal Sydney Cup favourite Campaldino in the N E Manion Cup (2400m) and Within The Law in the Birthday Card Stakes (1200m), such representation a long way from the early years when Darby first began selling shares in horses to a few mates.
“I was introduced to racing at sixteen and fell into syndication a little bit later by syndicating a few on the side to friends. I didn’t know you needed a licence at that point,” Darby said.
“Darby Racing really took off in 2016, the year Yankee Rose ran second in the Slipper, and then we won it the year later with She Will Reign.
“After that, it was just a huge, upward curve.”