News

Now for a drier track - Waller delighted as Triple Honour draws gate one in Doncaster

14th Apr 2009

Sydney Morning Herald - John Schell - Wednesday, 15 April 2009

THE Doncaster Mile prospects of defending champion Triple Honour received a boost yesterday when the four-year-old came up with gate one for Saturday's $2 million race.

Trainer Chris Waller declared his group 1 performer to be "at the top of his game" after the draw in which favourite All Silent came up with gate 16 in the 19-horse field.

"It's one less worry, now we don't need to worry about sitting wide," Waller said. "All we really want now is for the track to dry out a little bit and we'll be able to use the gate to our advantage."

Triple Honour, already a winner of more than $1.5m, has not won this campaign but Waller believes that the gelding is going even better than he was leading into last year's Doncaster.

"Compared to last year he is probably going better as he failed badly in his lead-up run to the Doncaster this time 12 months ago," he said. "Fortunately we pushed on to the race when we could have quite easily put him out. That said, he is up a little in weight this year."

Glen Boss rode Triple Honour, which carried just 51 kilograms, to Doncaster victory last year but Hugh Bowman takes over the ride this time around, with the impost being 55kg.

"Even though he is up in weight on what he carried last year he will appreciate getting back to the handicap conditions after taking on weight-for-age races at his last two starts," Waller said. "I really don't think he is strong enough to be a weight-for-age horse yet, so dropping from the 59kg of the Ryder, in which he was only beaten 1.3 lengths to the 55kg at Randwick on Saturday is going to be in his favour.

"I realise that some horses get in well against him, particularly Vision And Power which won the Ryder and goes down to 51.5kg. But Triple Honour loves the track and he loves the footing at this time of the year. He knows what he has to do to win a Doncaster."

Waller said that Bowman "will suit" Triple Honour and "from the good barrier he'll just put the horse to sleep".

Jay Ford will ride Waller's other Doncaster aspirant, Chinchilla Rose, which the trainer said would also appreciate dropping in weight.

"She sat three and four wide in the Coolmore and weakened as a result of that, and then she ran well in the Queen Of The Turf," Waller said.

Darley trainer Peter Snowden will rely on last-start group 1 winning mare Neroli (Kerrin McEvoy) and Musket (apprentice Daniel Ganderton) to give him the Doncaster, and was happy following the draw.

"Neroli has drawn great in three and the great thing about her is she handles any conditions and can take up a position," Snowden said. "Musket can also handle it wet and dry and 14 isn't a bad draw for him."

Snowden said he engaged Ganderton for the Musket mount as "it is a struggle finding someone to ride at 51.5kg these days".

"Permission could have been granted to ride the horse a kilo overweight with another jockey on but I thought why give away the weight advantage," he said. "Ganderton rides well, he'll give the horse every chance and, importantly, he can ride at the weight."

TAB Sportsbet's Glenn Munsie said All Silent retained favouritism for the Doncaster last night while adding that "almost every runner attracted support today".

"All Silent and Hot Danish have been popular all the way through pre-post betting and Vision And Power and Whobegotyou, even though it's drawn the outside, continue to be supported," Munsie said.

The Gai Waterhouse-trained Espom Handicap winner Theseo drew well in gate two and was the best backed yesterday at $13, while Munsie said form galloper Solo Flyer was the subject of each-way support at $15.

Jockey Michael Rodd will ride Whobegotyou for trainer Mark Kavanagh and the star hoop is not worried about the horror barrier.

"He'll get back and he doesn't really relish being stuck up inside of horses anyway," Rodd said. "There is a good long run along the back straight from the mile start at Randwick, so the gate is not really a worry."

DONCASTER MILE:

HOW THEY LINE UP No. | Horse | Barrier | Jockey | Trainer | Wgt | Price -| ---- | ----- | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ : 1| THESEO | (2) | N Rawiller | G Waterhouse | 57.0 | 12.00 2| ALAMOSA| (18)| C Newitt | M G Price | 56.5 | 23.00 3| KING MUFHASA |(10) | S C Spratt | S J McKee | 55.0 | 15.00 4| TRIPLE HONOUR | (1) | J Bowman | C J Waller | 55.0 | 16.00 5 | ALL SILENT | (16) | D Oliver | G M Begg | 54.5 | 5.50 6 | WHOBEGOTYOU | (19) | M Rodd | M A Kavanagh | 54.5 | 9.00 7 | HOT DANISH | (7) | Tim Clark | L J Bridge | 54.0 | 7.00 8 | SIR SLICK | (15) | TBA | G A Nicholson | 53.5 | 151.00 9 | SOLO FLYER | (9) | C W Brown | A J Cummings | 52.5 | 14.00 10 | VISION AND POWER | (12) | J A Cassidy | Joseph Pride | 51.5 | 9.00 11 | NEROLI | (3) | K McEvoy | Peter Snowden | 51.5 | 11.00 12 | GALLANT TESS | (13) | TBA | David Payne | 51.5 | 41.00 13 | LARGO LAD| (5) | G Boss | D A Hayes | 51.5 | 11.00 14 | PINNACLES | (4) | C Munce | R G Hore-Lacy | 51.5 | 31.00 15 | BLACK PIRANHA | (11) | T Angland | C Karakatsanis | 51.5 | 15.00 16 | RAGS TO RICHES | (8) | G Buckley | L F Birchley | 51.5 | 71.00 17 | CHINCHILLA ROSE | (6) | J Ford | C J Waller | 51.5 | 81.00 18 | MUSKET| (14) | D M Ganderton | Peter Snowden | 51.5 | 26.00 19 | RHYNO CHASER | (17) | TBA | Kevin Moses | 51.5 | 81.00

Run at Randwick Saturday, (1600m).