Waller wary of Junoob form for Listed Cup

Thursday 27 February 2014, 4:12pm

Chris Waller's assessment of Junoob has raised doubts over the import's right to favouritism in Saturday's Parramatta Cup.

Junoob is the $1.95 top pick for the Listed race at Rosehill, a position he earned with strong middle-distance wins at his past two starts.

But Waller, who also saddles Bayrir, Permit and Opinion, is sure they have just as much to offer as their more fancied stablemate.

"Those other horses would probably do the same in restricted races," Waller said.

"It's hard to get a horse all the way up to Group level in one preparation, although occasionally horses do it.

"Junoob is an exciting horse heading in the right direction.

"But he's up against the big boys on Saturday. We will see how far he's really come."

Markets have Bayrir as Waller's next best chance at $11 and he appeals to the trainer because of a weight drop and proven class.

A Group One winner of the Secretariat Stakes in the USA, Bayrir was beaten less than 2-1/2 lengths by Red Excitement over 1600m last start.

"There was nothing wrong with his run last start under 61 kilos. He's got weight relief and he's drawn better," Waller said.

He expects Permit will need racing to peak and says Opinion will improve with an increase in distance.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »