One prominent pundit says this Saturday’s Golden Slipper is “clearly” the most open of the past three or four decades.

Maybe. What has definitely been missing on the road to the 2026 Slipper is what the young folk call a narrative — a story that builds from late January to a Slipper-day finale, where it often turns out that the ghost that’s been haunting the amusement park was the owner in a sheet all along.

Last year, for example, the plotline from January 18 onwards was that they were all competing for second place behind Wodeton.

Two defeats later the colt had transformed from hero to villain for many viewers, and his “redemption arc” was spoiled when he narrowly failed to catch Marhoona in the big one.

Hindsight suggests the market got it right on that occasion when it decided Tempted ($4.80 favourite) was the best horse in the race, but that didn’t go to script either. The Godolphin filly finished third.

There’s been no Wodeton this year. The market has greeted even convincing wins in important lead-up races — such as that of Stretan Ruler in the Silver Slipper — with a shrug of the shoulders.

As a result, any of four or five horses could start favourite on Saturday.

Of course, the popular pick getting rolled in a 16-runner two-year-old race is business as usual. Farnan, who started at $4.80 in 2020, is the only winning Slipper favourite of the past decade.

Not that the market has been completely clueless. Six of the other nine winners in that time have started in single figures.

It’s worth noting the roughest winners of the past 10 years, Kiamichi ($26) in 2019 and Shinzo ($16) in 2023, were backing up off wins the week before in the Magic Night and Pago Pago respectively.