Waller six to chase Group One Doomben Cup

Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee Chris Waller has a chance to replicate one of his amazing results on Saturday.

Waller, who will be inducted in the Hall of Fame on Friday, is chasing his 82nd Group One win and his 10th in Brisbane in the Doomben Cup (2000m).

Waller will have six runners Comin’ Through (Michael Walker), Satono Rasen (Glyn Schofield), Egg Tart (Leith Innes), One Foot In Heaven (Michael Cahill), Life Less Ordinary (Opie Bosson) and Tom Melbourne (Corey Brown) in the Group One race.

It may sound fanciful to think Waller could lead in the first six over the line in a field of 13.

But he has done it before in the 2014 Group Two Chelmsford Stakes at Randwick with Hawkspur, Royal Descent, Bagman, Sacred Falls, Moriarty and Junoob filling the first six places.

Having six runners in a Group One race is also nothing new for Waller who most recently did it in the Doncaster in April.

But it is understood to be a first for any stakes race in Brisbane.

Waller has had success in the Doomben Cup which gave him one of his first Group One wins when Metal Bender won in 2010.

He won the race again in 2013 when Beaten Up scored a strong win.

Waller will be at Doomben on Saturday but his Queensland manager Paul Shailer oversaw trackwork on Tuesday morning.

“They are all well and they worked strongly and we are happy with them. I would be disappointed if we didn’t play a role in the finish,” Shailer said.

He pointed out luck almost always played a major role in the result of stakes races.

“You only have to look at the Hollindale Stakes where five of our horses had their lead up runs. We had some hard-luck stories and weren’t the only ones,” he said.

In the Hollindale the Waller runners finished in this order: Tom Melbourne (second), Satono Rasen (fourth), Egg Tart (fifth), Comin’ Through (sixth), and One Foot In Heaven (11th).

“Four of them got mentions in the stewards report but it was one of those type of races,” Shailer said.

“The whole stable is looking forward to this race which can give us 11 Group Ones for the season.”

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