Chris Waller will have to wait another day to set a new training benchmark in Sydney after falling three wins short of his target at Canterbury.
The premier trainer had eight runners and got off to the perfect start when Murder Of Crows led all the way in the opening race to take his season tally to 153-1/2 winners.
But Waller had no such joy in the next six races with second placings to Trick Shot and Sergeant At Arms his best results.
While the milestone wasn’t reached on Wednesday, Waller is enjoying the challenge of chasing down the Sydney training record of 156 winners in a season jointly held by the legendary Tommy Smith and his daughter Gai Waterhouse.
“It’s quite a good feeling but I don’t want it to go on for too long,” Waller said.
“Hopefully by early next week we’ve got a record.”
One of Smith’s biggest adversaries, maestro trainer Bart Cummings, unearthed an exciting prospect at Canterbury in juvenile Eurozone.
The colt earned high praise from winning jockey Hugh Bowman after he overhauled Suit in the final bounds to post a neck victory in the Become An ATC Sponsor Plate (1100m).
“It’s only a winter maiden but he does give you an exceptionally good feel,” Bowman said.
“I think we’re going to hear a lot more of him.
“Once he got himself into clear room and got a sniff of the winning post he really let down for me.”
Eurozone is by boom first-season sire Northern Meteor and Cummings’s grandson James said they would look to give him another run or two to give him a “grounding” before the better races come around.
“He’s a really promising horse,” he said.
“The way we prepare our horses, this horse is going to get better and better. Hopefully he is the real deal.”
James Cummings is set to enter into a formal training partnership with his grandfather before the current racing season ends on July 31.
Saintly Lodge, Cummings’ base in Melbourne, was reportedly sold this week although James Cummings was remaining tight lipped about the details.
“We are in the process of determining what’s happening down there,” he said.
