Latest news with #ChrisWaller-trained
Courier-Mail
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Courier-Mail
2024-25 Champion Australian Racehorse awards nominees
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. The Horse of the Year award is a lock but try selecting the champion two-year-old or the best three-year-old filly. The three-year-old male award is up for grabs, the title of best sprinter isn't cut and dried, and neither is the stayer category for that matter. Unlike most years when these awards are reasonably predictable, most of the 2025 Champion Australian Racehorse award categories are wide open with the obvious exception of Horse of the Year which the Chris Waller-trained Via Sistina will win by about as far as her spectacular eight lengths Cox Plate romp last spring. The two-year-old award is one of the tightest as there was a different winner of each of the five Group 1 juvenile races this season including Marhoona and Devil Night who both scored their only stakes win in the Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond respectively. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Nepotism won the Group 1 Champagne Stakes and Group 3 Baillieu Handicap while Vinrock was unbeaten in three starts and became first horse since Full On Aces (1981) to win the Group 2 VRC Sires Produce Stakes and Group 1 ATC Sires Produce Stakes double. Cool Archie made a late season surge with five consecutive wins including the Listed Dalrello Stakes, Group 2 Champagne Classic, Group 2 BRC Sires Produce Stakes and Group 1 JJ Atkins. Even Tempted — who won twice at Group 2 level and was luckless in the Blue Diamond (seventh) and Golden Slipper (third) – O' Ole (Magic Millions) and Within The Law will have some support. The three-year-old filly division is also very contentious. Treasurethe Moment won eight races in succession including the VRC Oaks-ATC Australian Oaks double and Vinery Stud Stakes at Group 1 level but how does that compare to Lady Shenandoah's unbeaten season of five wins featuring Group 1 successes in the Flight Stakes and Surround Stakes and her defeat of older mares in the Coolmore Classic? The contenders for the major gongs in the 2025 Champion Austraian Racehorse awards. Picture: Winx wins the 2025 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Aeliana's outstanding ATC Australian Derby win by more than five lengths puts her into the conversation, Autumn Glow is unbeaten after four starts with three at stakes level, and Lady Of Camelot might have been winless this season but she was placed four times at Group 1 level and ran fourth in The Everest. Broadsiding (Golden Rose, Rosehill Guineas) was the only multiple Group 1 winner in the three-year-old male division but unbeaten Private Harry (The Galaxy), Linebacker (Randwick Guineas, defeating Broadsiding), Switzerland (Coolmore Stud Stakes), Private Life (Caulfield Guineas) and Maison Louis (Queensland Derby) will collate votes. It's anyone's guess for Champion Sprinter. Did Bella Nipotina do enough winning The Everest (and Russell Balding Stakes) to edge out dual Group 1 winners Joliestar (Newmarket Handicap, Kingsford Smith Cup) and Jimmysstar (Oakleigh Plate, All Aged Stakes), or Briasa (TJ Smith Stakes), Overpass (Winterbottom Stakes) and Schwarz (William Reid Stakes)? • Richard Callander: Forget wagering – this is racing's biggest battle Champion Stayer often goes to the Melbourne Cup winner but this was Knight's Choice's only win of the season which brings the likes of Duke De Sessa (Caulfield Cup), Dubai Honour (Tancred Stakes), Arapaho (Sydney Cup, Sandown Classic), Campaldino (Brisbane Cup), Alalcance (Manion Cup, Chairman's Quality), Land Legend (The Metropolitan) and Zardozi into the mix. But champion mare Via Sistina was the standout of 2024-25, winning seven of her nine starts, all at Group 1 level to equal the record for most majors in a season set by all-time great Winx in 2018-19. • Via Sistina is back … and she'll again blaze her record-breaking trail Via Sistina also won the Winx Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, Champions Stakes, Verry Elleegant Stakes, Ranvet Stakes and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over distances ranging from 1400m to 2000m so she will also claim the Middle Distance award, too. With Via Sistina certain to win Horse of the Year, it will be the eighth time in 10 years a Waller-trained galloper has won the coveted title. Waller also prepared the only four-time Horse of the Year winner, Winx (2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19), as well as Nature Strip (2019-20, 2021-22), and Verry Elleegant (2020-2021). Selected racing officials and media start voting on the awards this week with the winners announced at a special Hall of Fame-Horse of the Year function in Brisbane on August 31. Originally published as 2024-25 Champion Australian Racehorse awards: Via Sistina's a special but other categories wide open
The Age
27-06-2025
- Sport
- The Age
McDonald counts on storming finish to equal Miracle's group 1 record
James McDonald hopes a swing in the weights and a rise in distance can offset a disappointing draw for Firestorm as the superstar jockey strives to equal the Australian record for group 1 wins in a season on Saturday at Eagle Farm. McDonald sits on a personal-best 15 elite victories in Australia in 2024-25 with only the Tattersall's Tiara (1400m) left for him to match 'Miracle' Malcolm Johnston's record of 16 from 1979-80. Chris Waller-trained Firestorm remains one of the top fancies for the fillies and mares feature, but her and McDonald's hopes were dealt a blow when she drew gate 19. That was 14 of 17 on Friday. 'It's never ideal,' McDonald said. 'The perfect draw was probably between eight and 12 because she does like a bit of room, but obviously we didn't get that, so we need a bit of luck. You never know. Eagle Farm is a big, fair track, so hopefully it plays well.' Firestorm was a $4.20 chance with Sportsbet, which had Floozie as favourite at $4 and Tashi at $7.50. Last start, those main rivals finished one-two in the group 2 Dane Ripper Stakes (1300m) when McDonald gave third-placed Firestorm an ideal run from gate nine. Firestorm's impost drops a kilogram on Saturday, while Floozie and Tashi go up 1kg and 1.5kg respectively to all meet at 57kg. McDonald hoped for genuine pace up front to give Firestorm the chance to launch late. 'She'll improve off her first-up run, and she meets the first two better at the weights, so that bodes well for her, and the 1400 will suit her better,' he said. Firestorm won the group 2 Millie Fox Stakes first-up at 1300m in February before almost upsetting star filly Lady Shenandoah, and McDonald, with a flying finish in the group 1 Coolmore Classic at 1500m. Waller was taking encouragement from that effort.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
McDonald counts on storming finish to equal Miracle's group 1 record
James McDonald hopes a swing in the weights and a rise in distance can offset a disappointing draw for Firestorm as the superstar jockey strives to equal the Australian record for group 1 wins in a season on Saturday at Eagle Farm. McDonald sits on a personal-best 15 elite victories in Australia in 2024-25 with only the Tattersall's Tiara (1400m) left for him to match 'Miracle' Malcolm Johnston's record of 16 from 1979-80. Chris Waller-trained Firestorm remains one of the top fancies for the fillies and mares feature, but her and McDonald's hopes were dealt a blow when she drew gate 19. That was 14 of 17 on Friday. 'It's never ideal,' McDonald said. 'The perfect draw was probably between eight and 12 because she does like a bit of room, but obviously we didn't get that, so we need a bit of luck. You never know. Eagle Farm is a big, fair track, so hopefully it plays well.' Firestorm was a $4.20 chance with Sportsbet, which had Floozie as favourite at $4 and Tashi at $7.50. Last start, those main rivals finished one-two in the group 2 Dane Ripper Stakes (1300m) when McDonald gave third-placed Firestorm an ideal run from gate nine. Firestorm's impost drops a kilogram on Saturday, while Floozie and Tashi go up 1kg and 1.5kg respectively to all meet at 57kg. McDonald hoped for genuine pace up front to give Firestorm the chance to launch late. 'She'll improve off her first-up run, and she meets the first two better at the weights, so that bodes well for her, and the 1400 will suit her better,' he said. Firestorm won the group 2 Millie Fox Stakes first-up at 1300m in February before almost upsetting star filly Lady Shenandoah, and McDonald, with a flying finish in the group 1 Coolmore Classic at 1500m. Waller was taking encouragement from that effort.
