Liapari opens Randwick account for Chris Waller
CHRIS Waller secured an early win at Randwick on Monday which will no doubt be a stressful day for the champion trainer.
Waller lines up $1.15 favourite Winx in the Group 2 Apollo Stakes later in the day, but the pressured eased a little when Liapari took out the opening Ranvet Handicap with a last-to-first performance.
The four-year-old was the +260 favourite at Ladbrokes.com.au following its strong win on this track earlier this month and the quality gelding produced another strong finish to score over Hogmanay and Cauthen’s Power.
The former New Zealand runner took its record to four wins from 17 starts and jockey Brenton Avdulla accepted the challenge of staying below 53kg over the weekend after the postponement.
“On Saturday I was sitting by the pool all day, trying to look after my weight,” Avdulla said. “This horse had 53kg – I couldn’t do much eating or drinking.”
Avdulla produced a poor ride on Liapari three starts back, but his decisions since have been top quality and it’s not an easy horse to ride according to Avdulla.
“He’s been a horse that I’ve had a lot to do with. He can be difficult to ride sometimes, he gets on the bridle when you go for him and he likes to hang around a bit,” Avdulla said.
“He did the job the other day well enough – he got there and floated, but today on the back-up he gave me a beautiful ride throughout.
“The tempo was nice and I hit a flat spot before the bend, but I was confident from the furlong onward, he was always going to put them away.”
Avdulla admitted that he will be watching Winx after work on Monday, despite having a ride aboard Libran in the group two feature.
“Full credit to the ATC and Racing NSW, it’s a good day to be here and don’t worry, I’ll be watching Winx after work as well,” he said.
Chris Waller also paid credit to Racing NSW, but this time for the level of stake money on offer around the greater Sydney area.
“I think that’s what’s driving the support of the industry,” Waller said. “Not only do they have great facilities and getting people to the races more, but the fun of Saturday races, even through the country and provincial races.
“We won a few at Newcastle the other day – $30,000 prizemoney, just for the provincials. It’s really good and it’s what the owners deserves.
“It will flow through to the punters getting a kick out of betting on the better horses.”
An understandably nervous Waller stated that Winx would arrive later in the afternoon to prepare for the Apollo Stakes.
“I think she leaves home around 2.30pm and get here about an hour or so later,” Waller said. “It’s much cooler obviously, but still warm enough today.
“It’s a big relief. The horses did it pretty tough over the weekend, but they bounce back.”