Winx front and centre of Waller’s Rosehill contingent

[Chief Stipe]

Chris Waller heads to Golden Slipper day with favourites in three of the five Group One races, two of them the highest-profile horses in the country.

Winx is at $1.08 in early markets to win her fourth George Ryder Stakes while The Autumn Sun is $1.50 to win his first race beyond 1600 metres in the Rosehill Guineas on Saturday.

Waller has been Australia’s leading Group One trainer of recent seasons but has had few runners in the A$3.5 million Golden Slipper, the world’s richest race for two-year-olds.

Ahead of the declaration of the final field and all-important barrier draw tomorrow, Yes Yes Yes is the $5 favourite ahead of the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Cosmic Force and Tenley, one of six confirmed runners for Godolphin, at $6.

There were 23 nominations taken today for the George Ryder which is scheduled to be Winx’s penultimate start before she is retired. If she is successful again, she will become the first horse to win three different Group One races on four occasions – the Cox Plate, the Chipping Norton and the George Ryder.

Waller is conscious of the Winx effect and has been sharing her and some of her routines on social media.

“She’s turned into a bit of a model,” he said. “She knows she gets a bit of attention with the social media, which has been good. It’s opened our eyes towards media and how she’s portrayed in the right ways and how people want to get a bit more of her without interfering with her.

“She did have a model shoot which we’ve had to keep confidential and she posed as well as the model.”

The Waller stable will also field strong candidates in the other two Group One events, the Ranvet Stakes – Unforgotten, Shillelagh and Egg Tart who are all also entered in the George Ryder – and Nature Strip in the Galaxy.

European Group Two winner Eminent, who will race as He’s Eminent, is nominated for both the George Ryder and the Ranvet.

The five-year-old by Frankel is owned by Pencarrow Stud’s Sir Peter Vela and is having one final preparation in the care of New Zealand’s dual Olympic gold medallist Sir Mark Todd, who has reignited his training career for this mission.

Champion sprinter Redzel heads the Galaxy market and is also entered for Friday night’s Group One weight-for-age William Reid Stakes at The Valley in Melbourne but is likely to stay in Sydney despite having to carry 59.5kg.

 

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