Boban Wins Group One Emirates Stakes

Saturday, 09 November 2013 05:15

Premier Sydney trainer Chris Waller has plundered the final Group One race of the Melbourne Cup carnival with Boban taking out Saturday's Emirates Stakes at Flemington.

Boban (purple colours) gets up inside Smokin' Joey

The vastly-improved galloper gave Waller his third elite victory during the four-day carnival following wins to Red Tracer and Zoustar last Saturday.

Maintaining his unbeaten record this campaign, Boban settled worse than midfield for regular jockey Glyn Schofield and finished strongly down the middle of the track to score.

Smokin' Joey closed late for second with Speediness gallant in defeat, finishing third.

Boban

Glyn Schofield said Boban had to dig deep after peaking on his run short of the winning post.

"He does possess a very strong turn of speed and of course, I only want to use it when I need to use it. But today his run came to an end about 50 metres from home and he just sort of clung on," Schofield said.

"It was a very tough effort from him."

Boban

Waller confirmed he may test the proven miler over a longer distance in the autumn.

He named the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Sydney as a likely target with a view to next year's Cox Plate.

"It could be the right time to try him over 2000 metres there," Waller said of the Queen Elizabeth.

"But obviously having a taste of this carnival, the Cox Plate sounds pretty enticing."

Photos: Quentin Lang