Diamond winner out to create history in Golden Slipper
Devil Night has already demonstrated an ability to win a big race off an unconventional preparation, something that will again be asked of him in this Saturday's Golden Slipper.
The Michael, Wayne and J Hawkes-trained colt emulated Redoute's Choice when he won the Blue Diamond at only his second start.
The son of Extreme Choice will make his first appearance since that day in Saturday's $5 million Group 1 event at Rosehill.
The Racing And Sports database has detailed form for all Slipper runners back to 1984 and in that time no Slipper has been won by a horse having only its third start.
Thirty-eight have tried with second placings to Just Blooming (1986), Octagonal (1995), English (2015), Yankee Rose (2016) and Best Of Bordeaux (2022) the best results.
Octagonal highlights the different approach to the Slipper from his era to now with that Hall of Famer the only horse in the entire 1990s to tackle the Slipper at their third career run.
This year's field of 16 includes six horses who have raced just twice; Devil Night, West Of Swindon, King Of Pop, Farcited, Military Tycoon and Marhoona.
The trend now is for two-year-olds to debut later than years gone by with the number of juveniles seen before the Golden Slipper down 44 percent since 2005.
That year, 1608 two-year-olds had raced before the Slipper – which was run on March 19 – which dwarfs the 894 juveniles to have raced in Australia to this point of this season.
Last year's pre-Slipper number was 917, which followed 952 in 2023 and it was only six years ago that 1154 two-year-olds had stepped out before the Slipper.
Hitting the Slipper at start No 4 has been the most successful formula of late, with half of the last 20 winners having had three starts prior, including the past two Shinzo and Lady Of Camelot.
Straight from Caulfield
Devil Night is following the path of Lady Of Camelot, who won last year's Slipper straight out of the Blue Diamond, in which she finished second.
She was 29 days between runs, thanks to last year being a leap year, which is the second-longest gap between runs by a Slipper winner in the last 40 years.
The only one to have won off a longer gap is Sebring, who won the 2008 Slipper 49 days after his final lead-up run.
Last year was the first year that Blue Diamond form featured in the Slipper winner's form card since 2011, the year that Sepoy became the fifth horse to complete the Diamond/Slipper double that Devil Night is chasing.
Blue Diamond third placegetter Tycoon Star and Tempted, who finished seventh, are the others in this year's Slipper who come out of the Caulfield feature.
Late debut
Devil Night's only run before the Blue Diamond was a second placing in the Blue Diamond Prelude, on February 8, which was run 42 days before the Slipper.
Only two Slipper winners since 1990 have debuted closer to the race – Bint Marscay (1993) and Stratum (2005) – who won it at their fourth start, 35 days after debut.
Skyhook, who, like Stratum, won the Pago Pago Stakes, heads into the Golden Slipper 35 days after making his debut.
Two others in this year's field made their debut even more recently than Skyhook, with King Of Pop's debut win at Warwick Farm on February 19 coming 31 days before the Slipper, while Farcited debuted two days later in the Black Opal Preview.
