Waller In The Dark About Import Diametric
- Friday, 03 July 2015 08:22
Chris Waller is renowned for his success with European stayers in Australia but Diametric has the premier trainer stumped.
The former French galloper will be one of three runners for Waller in the Listed Civic Stakes (1350m) at Rosehill on Saturday along with Rugged Cross and Said Com.
But Waller can offer little insight into how Diametric will perform.
A Group One placegetter over 2000m in Germany, Diametric raised the hopes of his connections when he kicked off his second local preparation with a Randwick win on protest in January.
Waller fully expected the lightly raced horse to progress to bigger and better races but Diametric's four subsequent runs underwhelmed his trainer who admitted he wasn't sure what to expect this time around.
"He won first-up after about a year off last preparation and never won again," Waller said.
"He travelled like the winner in every one of his races, including Group races over further, and just never found a metre.
"We're just training him as a sprinter-miler and the first two runs of the preparation will tell us whether he can take the next step or if that's just him."
Waller is more confident he has identified the key to Rugged Cross who will back up from his fifth to Beauty's Beast over 1500m on a heavy Rosehill track last weekend.
The horse will wear blinkers on Saturday and the distance drop to 1350m is a deliberate move.
"I don't think he runs a true mile and that's been exaggerated on these very wet tracks," Waller said.
"Even last Saturday he loomed up to put them away and failed to. And he was soft his last 100 (metres) so I've put some blinkers on him and we're backing him up."
Diametric and Rugged Cross have been kept safe in betting at $12 while Said Com is the outsider of Waller's trio at $26.
Dothraki dominates betting at $2.90 as he bids to post back-to-back wins for the first time in his career.
A Group Three winner at the Gold Coast last start, Dothraki is the 59kg topweight for Wednesday's Ramornie Handicap at Grafton with the Peter and Paul Snowden team yet to commit to either race.
