News

Junoob (GB) for sale after the Ballarat Cup

18th Nov 2015

RACINGANDSPORTS.COM.AU - by Chris Scholtz - Wednesday 18 November, 2015

Chris Waller will be hoping two of his well-performed stable servants Junoob (GB) and Pythagorean (GB) can leave his care in winning form.

The imported pair are listed to go to auction at the Inglis December Thoroughbred Sale in Melbourne on December 11 but not before they contest feature races this weekend in NSW and Victoria.

Classy stayer Junoob heads the field with 60kg in Saturday’s $300,000 Ballarat Cup (2200m) while Pythagorean is set to bid for his second successive win in the $100,000 Goulburn Cup (1600m) on Sunday.

Ballarat is the feature Victorian meeting on Saturday with no metropolitan fixture and has attracted acceptors from the Waller and Gai Waterhouse stables.

Waller holds a strong hand in the Ballarat Cup with Junoob and stablemate Index Linked (GB) while Waterhouse is targeting the rich Magic Millions feature races on the Ballarat program.

She will give the Choisir two-year-old Preferito, placed in a Randwick trial last month, his first start in Victoria's only race run in a clockwise direction, the $200,000 Magic Millions Clockwise Classic (1000m) as it provides an important lead-up race to the $2.5 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic at the Gold Coast in January.

She also has sent Our Catch from her Randwick stable to contest Saturday’s $100,000 MM Ballarat Classic (1100m) for three and four-year-olds and has the promising Show A Star running in the $50,000 McKellar Mile (1600m).

Junoob with 60kg has half a kilo more than stablemate Index Linked in the Ballarat Cup. The final field of 18 includes Akzar (IRE) and Tooleybuc Kid from the stable of Ballarat-based Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir.

Weir is chasing his second hometown victory in the Ballarat Cup, 11 years after his first with Just The Part.

Last year's winner Mujadale is also an acceptor, aiming to become the first back-to-back winner since Warri Symbol in 1982-83.

Junoob, the winner of 10 of his 43 starts, was stripped of a G1 win last year when he was disqualified as the winner of the ATC Metropolitan at Randwick after returning a positive test.

His last official win was in the G2 Hill Stakes when he beat Criterion (NZ) at his start prior to the 2014 Metropolitan. He has since been placed only once in 12 subsequent starts when second in the Listed City tattersalls Club Cup (2400m) at Randwick last month.

Pythagorean, the winner of three races in Australia since he was secured by Waller from the UK in 2013, has also been winless since he won last year’s Goulburn Cup (1600m).

He has raced three times since a spell without placing but significantly is Waller’s only entry among the 19 nominations for Sunday’s Goulburn Cup.