A trio of Chris Waller’s Winx Stakes contenders stretched their legs in race day workouts at Rosehill, with the champion trainer revealing he could have up to seven runners in Sydney’s first Group 1 race of the season.
Waller took the opportunity to work Lindermann, Fangirl and Princess Grace between races on Saturday, Lindermann galloping with the Melbourne-bound El Bodegon, while Fangirl and Princess Grace partnered up.
Ridden by James Mcdonald, Lindermann had the better of El Bodegon (Kerrin Mcevoy) in their hitout, clocking 1:02.85 for the 1000m and convincing Waller he was on target for a bold first-up showing.
“I didn’t think they were going that quick, but they ran one minute and two seconds, which is a good thousand-metre time and they breezed up nicely in the straight,” Waller said.
“Lindermann will stay in Sydney and run in the Winx, El Bodegon will go to the P J Lawrence.
“Who knows how far they get, but Lindermann won’t be far away next Saturday, I know that.”
Waller said he had decided to send 2022 Cox Plate placegetter El Bodgeon back to Melbourne, feeling the horse might prefer the reverse direction of racing after a disappointing autumn in Sydney.
However, he won’t be wanting for numbers in Saturday’s Winx Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
While cautioning that jockey bookings could change, Waller has confirmed Hugh Bowman has been pencilled-in to partner Lindermann, while stablemates Fangirl (James McDonald), Francesco Guardi (Jay Ford), Hinged (McEvoy), Montefilia (Dylan Gibbons), Osipenko (Brenton Avdulla) and Princess Grace (Brett Prebble) are all in the mix for the feature.
Both Bowman and Avdulla are briefly back in Sydney while Hong Kong racing is in its annual off-season break.
Meanwhile, Extremely Lucky will head to the Show County Quality (1200m) on the Winx Stakes undercard after being scratched from Rosehill on Saturday due to a “dirty scope”.
“He’ll be back next Saturday in the Show County,” Waller said.
“It was very minor, it could have gone either way and if it was his grand final you’d run and say, he’ll be fine.
“But first run, we decided not to take the risk.”
