Sydney’s premier trainer Chris Waller has seven horses left in the Group 1 $3m Crown Golden Ale Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on October 18 after third acceptances were taken today.

Junoob is one of seven Chris Waller trained stayers among the 3rd acceptances for the Caulfield Cup. Photo by Steve Hart.

Forty-one stayers were left in the Caulfield Cup today, including seven international horses, with Waller supplying one sixth of the total.

Waller’s strong Caulfield Cup contingent is headed by Junoob, Who Shot Thebarman and He’s Your Man, all of which received a penalty for winning last Saturday as well as Foreteller, Hawkspur, Moriarty and Opinion.

One notable absentee from the Waller stable is the consistent mare Royal Descent who will be heading towards the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 25.

Waller’s run of feature race victories continued over the weekend when He’s Your Man and Royal Descent ran the quinella in the Group 1 $500,000 The Star Epsom (1600m) and Junoob and Opinion finished first and second in the Group 1 $400,000 McGrath Estate Agents Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick.

Moriaty was also successful at Randwick taking out the Group 3 weight for age $125,000 APN Outdoor Craven Plate (2000m) while Who Shot Thebarman made it back to back wins in the Group 3 $150,000 The Bart Cummings (2520m) at Flemington.

Both Randwick Group 1 winners Junoob and He’s Your Man were penalised 1.5kgs for the Caulfield Cup while Who Shot The Barman received the same penalty for his Flemington win.

“With the penalties issued, Who Shot Thebarman now has 3kg less than the likely topweight Admire Rakti with 53kg in the Caulfield Cup,” Racing Victoria General Manager – Racing Greg Carpenter told Racing .com.

“He is a lightly raced stayer who now has built an imposing record at 2400m and beyond having won four of his five runs in that distance range including three at Group level.”

“Junoob’s Metropolitan win was an impressive staying performance and comes off the back of a weight-for-age win in the Group 2 Hill Stakes (2000m) since the release of weights.”

“With the penalties received today he now has 2kg more than Opinion having carried 2kg more when narrowly defeating his stablemate on Saturday.”

Junoob ($15) has now snuck up to number seventeen in the order for entry with the help of the penalty while Moriarty ($26), Who Shot Thebarman ($11) and He’s Your Man ($41) are nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first and look certain to gain a place in the final eighteen horse field when final acceptance for the Caulfield Cup are taken on October 14.

Foreteller ($34) remains at the top of the order of entry with Hawkspur ($21) at sixteen while Opinion ($67) still needs a bit of luck to make the final field from his current position of twenty-seven.

As expected last Saturday’s Flemington Group 1 $500,000 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) winner Lucia Valentina remains in Caulfield Cup contention and holds her spot at the head of the market order with Ladbrokes.com.au at $5.50.

Second favourite Bande ($7.50) and fellow Japanese stayer Admire Rakti ($15) are among the seven internationals still in the field which include the Marco Botti trio of Dandino ($15), Seismos  ($21) and Renew ($201) plus the Andrew Balding trained Lord Van Percy ($67) and My Ambivalent ($11), trained by Roger Varian.

Gai Waterhouse has The Offer ($15) and Bonfire ($41) among the third acceptances with super Kiwi mare Silent Achiever ($34) still in the list along with the Robert Hickmott trio of Sea Moon ($41), Green Moon ($51) and Masked Marvel ($101).

Peter Moody is hoping that Lidari ($34) and Brambles ($51), currently at numbers twenty-four and twenty-five in the order of entry, can gain a start after the pair raced back into form finishing second and third to Lucia Valentina in the Turnbull Stakes.