Waller Three-handed In Listed McKell Cup
- Friday, 22 May 2015 08:00
As he saddles up two Doomben 10,000 runners in search of Group One win No.12 for the season, Chris Waller will keep one eye on the Listed staying feature in Sydney.
He has three runners Saturday's McKell Cup (2400m) at Randwick, a race which is significant in the history of the Rosehill trainer.
As a young trainer starting out in New Zealand, Waller chanced his arm in the spring of 1998 by bringing a mare called Party Belle across the Tasman.
Preferment trainer Chris Waller
She won races at Wyong and Kembla Grange, fuelling Waller's ambitions to one day move to Sydney.
The following autumn, Party Belle returned to win three Sydney races before running third in the 1999 McKell Cup.
"She was my first Sydney winner and gave me my first stakes placing here," Waller said.
"It was pretty special and made me want to make the move a permanent one. I felt privileged to be able to race a horse in Sydney and I still feel it's pretty special to be training here."
Waller is now on the way to his fourth Sydney premiership and will once again be Australia's leading Group One trainer for the season.
Boban and Flamingo Star are his runners in Saturday's Group One sprint in Brisbane while Bagman, Our Voodoo Prince and Rezoned line up in the McKell.
Rezoned, a year-older sister to the Waller-trained Victoria Derby winner Preferment, is the most favoured of the trio after a fast-closing third in a 2200m race at Scone last Saturday.
"She is on the seven-day back-up and I think she can cope with it," Waller said.
"Our Voodoo Prince is having just his second start for us over 2400 metres and I think that's the distance he's looking for but he needs a perfect track and he doesn't look as if he will get that.
"Bagman is not racing at his best but doesn't mind a wet track."
After heavy rain in Sydney on Friday morning, Randwick was rated a heavy (9) with strong afternoon winds helping dry it out a little.
