Waller Confident Class Will Prevail At Rosehill

Champagne Cath will resume in the National Jockeys Trust Handicap (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow and trainer Chris Waller is confident the exciting filly will be good enough to record her second victory from as many starts.

Champagne Cath is one of several winning chances for Chris Waller at Rosehill tomorrow. Photo by: Steve Hart

The daughter of Street Sense was incredibly impressive on debut in the Blackwoods Alemlube Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill last December, trouncing a decent field by three and a half lengths.

Champagne Cath has won two barrier trials at Rosehill, despite being kept under a heavy hold, and Waller believes she is good enough to win on Saturday even though she doesn’t have a testing run under her belt.

“We haven’t wound her right up yet but she has had two trials,” Waller told Racing Ahead.

“We will let her head go for the first time tomorrow and hopefully there is some acceleration there which I would expect.

“I’m feeling confident but she still has to do it.”

Another Chris Waller-trained horse who is set to take a great deal of benefit out of his run tomorrow is Bayrir who will make his Australian racing debut in the Listed Winter Challenge (1500m).

The son of Medicean has won at Group 1 level in the United States and taken part in the Group 1 Prix De L’Arc Triomphe (2400m) in France as well as the Hong Kong International Vase (2400m) and Waller is hopeful that class will carry him to victory tomorrow.

“The expectations are not great but he obviously has some serious class,” the leading trainer said.

“He has acclimatized very well so far and I just hope he is sharp enough over the 1500 metres with the big weight on top.

“It’s hard to fault him, he has done nothing wrong at this stage.”

Waller is set to begin the 2013/2014 racing season where he left with several winning chances on the Rosehill card.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.