Three months ago, Chayan wasn’t considered a Golden Slipper prospect.
In fact, co-trainer Annabel Archibald planned to put the filly in the paddock without giving her an official barrier trial.
But a stock-standard jump out changed that thinking, and the experience changed Chayan.
“She had an unofficial jump-out at Christmas and I said to Eric Koh, her owner, ‘she will probably just have this jump out and go out’ because mentally, she was a little bit hot,” Archibald recalled.
“But she jumped out really well and really relaxed after that. She started mentally going the right way.
“We sent her down to Melbourne and she had those couple of runs there, and I think that has held her in really good stead.”
In those two Victorian appearances, Chayan finished runner-up in the Blue Diamond Fillies’ Prelude (1100m) and seventh from a wide draw in the Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) when enduring a tough run.
Returning to Sydney, she did well enough for connections to roll the dice in a Golden Slipper lead-up.
Chayan dually blitzed her Reisling Stakes (1200m) rivals by three lengths to secure her place in Saturday’s select field and after drawing gate 12, has been installed an outright Slipper favourite.
Archibald said the youngster had ticked every box since her last start, including turning in a rousing track gallop in her final serious piece of work on Tuesday.
“I couldn’t be any happier with her. She started her campaign off in Melbourne and didn’t have much luck with the draws down there, but ran really well,” she said.
“It was pleasing to see her come up here and put it all together. All of the ratings guys said she ran really good time, and the figures were good, and that’s all we can ask for as a last start heading into this race.”
Having a fancied runner in a Slipper is not new territory for Archibald, who saddled the then-unbeaten Learning To Fly in the 2023 renewal as a $6.50 chance.
It was an experience Archibald described as “character-building” after the filly stumbled badly before the home turn and dislodged jockey Chad Schofield.
Trainer and jockey will be in rival corners this year with Schofield partnering Stretan Ruler for Phillip Stokes, an emphatic winner of the Silver Slipper (1100m) who was doing his best work late for second in a leader-dominated edition of the Todman Stakes (1200m).
Schofield has been aboard for his past two starts and says the Victorian is a live chance.
“I just think he wants tempo,” Schofield said.
“In the Silver Slipper, we got tempo. It was free-flowing, and he unlocked that devastating turn of foot.
“The other day in the Todman, it was just a trot and canter and a dash home for three hundred metres. He was still really good, but if we get a solidly run 1200 metres, which the Slipper generally is, we will see the best of him. And I think the best of him is going to be hard to beat.”
