Waller weighs up Ajax Stakes 2016 start for Project

Chris Waller is having second thoughts about continuing Good Project’s Doncaster Mile campaign in the Ajax Stakes.

Good Project is one of the favourites to win the Group Two race at Rosehill on Saturday, but Waller’s enthusiasm for the Railway Stakes winner’s chances has waned because of his outside barrier in a field of 14 with the scratching of Big Money.

“Barrier fourteen in a field of fourteen is not going to be easy for him,” Waller said.

Instead, Waller will consider sending Good Project into weight-for-age racing for the first time by saving the four-year-old for the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill next week.

That move would put Good Project up against the stable’s pin-up girl Winx, but Waller said the Group One race would provide a better fit heading into the $3 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick on April 2.

“The George Ryder is going to be four lengths better (than the Ajax) but it will be the perfect lead-up into the Doncaster,” he said.

“He’s a Group One-winning colt. The Doncaster is his race and that’s what we have to seriously look at.”

Good Project is a $26 Doncaster chance in a market that has Waller’s Caulfield Guineas winner Press Statement as the $6 favourite.

Waller will still have numbers on his side in the Ajax without Good Project after stablemates Kool Kompany, Weary and Sadler’s Lake drew inner to middle barriers.

Bookmakers favour Kool Kompany as the best of the trio after the import made late headway in the Liverpool City Cup.

Godolphin sprinter Generalife is the early favourite to end a frustrating run of outs in the Ajax, a race in which the winner is exempt from the Doncaster Mile ballot.

 

Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au

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