Slipper formula makes for dangerous brew

''DISGRACE'', ''Slipper Farce'' and ''Worst Slipper on Record''. They were the headlines that screamed out at readers of last Sunday's newspapers Australia wide following the running, yet again, of an interference-marred Golden Slipper Stakes at Rosehill.

A Slipper that saw Melbourne's two leading riders, Steven King and Damien Oliver, suspended for two weeks for causing the interference while Shane Dye was also outed on the same day but after an adjourned inquiry from the week before when riding Telesto to victory in the Group weight-for-age George Ryder Stakes.

Oliver and Dye both appealed to the committee of the Australian Jockey Club all to no avail while King didn't bother lodging an appeal and forcing him to forfeit the prize mounts on Golden Sword in today's A$1 million Tooheys Doncaster Handicap and Hear That Bell in next Saturday's A$600,000 Sydney Cup.

Oliver was the victim of circumstance, the interference he allegedly caused being minor by Slipper standards while the committee broke a record in the short time they took to throw Dye's appeal out.

But were the post mortems on this year's Golden Slipper a shade overdone? Put simply, yes.

The usual discussions were made, the field is too big, 16 two-year-olds racing around a tight course, some never having seen it before, and the prestige of winning the event going along with the A$2 million prize money all adds up to spell disaster.