Waller Imports Pay Off
- Saturday, 03 November 2012 01:58
Kellini and Date To Dream (inside)Chris Waller's strategy of buying horses with staying potential out of the UK paid off yet again today when Kelinni won the Group 3 Lexus Stakes at Flemington.
Fresh from picking up another 9 stayers at this week's Tattersalls Horses In Training sale for a $1.2 million dollar outlay, Waller was surronded by a throng of happy owners after Kellini confirmed a place in the Melbourne Cup field with a gritty win.
"The horse has been a model of consistency and ran a good second in the Group 1 (Metropolitan) last start and then we purposely kept him for this race hoping that he could qualify but still have some life left in him", Waller said.
"It's a great feeling to be part of the Melbourne Cup and this has proven to be a pretty good form race in the past."
Winning jockey Nash Rawiller settled Kellini well back in ninth position in the 13 horse field, content to sit back off the pace set by Dame Claire.
Chris WallerComing to the home turn Rawiller made his run and Kellini ($9.00-$10-$9.50) sustained a strong finishing burst to win by a neck from the Bart Cummings trained Dare To Dream ($6.00-$8.50). Third a length away was Exceptionally ($8-$10) while the favourite Gatewood ($3.00-$3.20-$3.00F) only plodded to come sixth.
Rawiller said:
"It was a great effort by this horse. He showed today, what we’ve known all along, that he is a genuine stayer and he certainly deserves to be there on Tuesday."
“The last 80m you could tell he got a bit lost but he certainly wasn’t stopping, he just thought his job was done.”
“I was able to keep a little bit in the tank for Tuesday and I’ve got no doubt that if he can get a nice run off them like he did today he is a really good chance."
Waller was confident that Kellini, which ran second to Glencadam Gold in the Group 1 Metropolitan at his last start has the class to be competitive at Group 1 level.
"This preparation he has really gone to the next level", Waller said.
Waller preferred to keep Kellini as fresh as possible for today's race, concerned that he would not make the Melbourne Cup if put under too much pressure.
"If we had run him before today we would have run the risk of running him too many times."
Waller pointed out that although Kellini was effective over 2500 metres today he had no doubt that he would get the two miles of Tuesday's big race.
Kellini"His pedigree is very stout and we've had a look at that so two miles shouldn't be a problem at all."
"Some of his brothers and sisters have won over more than two miles."
Waller has produced a number of good stayers from his UK shopping trips, which have provided their Australian owners with excellent returns for their investment.
"This is what owners dream about. They don't expect to win in Melbourne Cups and they don't expect to run in Melbourne Cups but if you can win Saturday races and Listed races and races like this I think it's every owners dream."
"Whatever happens on Tuesday is a bonus."
Photos: Fiona Tomlin