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.
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.
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.”
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.”
| Race 7 – 3:45PM Emirates Stakes (1600 METRES) |
|---|
| Of $1,000,000.1st $600,000, 2nd $180,000, 3rd $90,000, 4th $45,000, 5th $25,000, 6th $20,000, 7th $20,000, 8th $20,000 GROUP 1 Quality, Minimum Weight 52kg, Maidens at time of entry are ineligible, Apprentices cannot claim.Track Condition: Dead 4 Time: 1:36.58 Last 600m: 0:34.84 INTERIM RESULTS |
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| Finish | No. | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Margin | Bar. | Weight | Starting Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | BOBAN | Chris Waller | Glyn Schofield | 3 | 57kg | $4.40F | |||
| 2 | 13 | SMOKIN’ JOEY | Wez Hunter | Jason Benbow | 0.2L | 6 | 52.5kg | $21 | ||
| 3 | 9 | SPEEDINESS | Colin Scott | Craig Williams | 0.3L | 1 | 55kg | $9 | ||
| 4 | 6 | MULL OF KILLOUGH (IRE) | Jane Chapple-Hyam | Damien Oliver | 0.6L | 11 | 56kg | $18 | ||
| 5 | 3 | SACRED FALLS (NZ) | Chris Waller | Glen Boss | 0.8L | 5 | 56.5kg | $7.50 | ||
| 6 | 4 | TOYDINI | Guy Walter | Blake Shinn | 1.1L | 10 | 56.5kg | $9 | ||
| 7 | 16 | RHYTHM TO SPARE (NZ) | Michael Moroney | Kerrin McEvoy | 1.85L | 7 | 52kg | $15 | ||
| 8 | 15 | STRIKE THE STARS (NZ) | Anthony Cummings | Chad Schofield (a) | 2.05L | 12 | 52kg | $18 | ||
| 9 | 14 | SPURTONIC | Gai Waterhouse | Tommy Berry | 2.25L | 9 | 52.5kg | $7 | ||
| 10 | 8 | NASHVILLE (NZ) | Adrian Bull | Steven Arnold | 2.45L | 13 | 55.5kg | $31 | ||
| 11 | 12 | BLACKIE (NZ) | Jarrod McLean | Chris Symons | 3.7L | 2 | 52.5kg | $21 | ||
| 12 | 11 | STIPULATE (GB) | David Hayes | Dwayne Dunn | 4L | 8 | 53kg | $26 | ||
| 13 | 1 | SOLZHENITSYN (NZ) | Robert Heathcote | Nash Rawiller | 19L | 4 | 58kg | $17 | ||
| 10 | MOURO (USA) | Tony McEvoy | Craig Newitt | 0 | ||||||
| 5 | LINTON | John Sadler | Jamie Mott | 0 | ||||||
| 7 | HAVANA GOLD (IRE) | Mikel Delzangles | Jamie Spencer | 0 |