He is usually setting the benchmark for other trainers, but Chris Waller admits he has taken inspiration from Sheila Laxon’s upset Melbourne Cup win with Knight’s Choice to plot an audacious bid of his own.
While internationally trained and pedigreed runners often dominate the Cup field—and indeed early markets for this year’s renewal—Knight’s Choice bucked the trend last spring.
Laxon’s success with the gelding, who was bred in the NSW country town of Walcha, has renewed Waller’s confidence in finding one or two local stayers of his own to aim at Australia’s most famous race, including Saturday’s Premier’s Cup Prelude runner Kadavar.
“After the Melbourne Cup last year when Sheila Laxon’s horse won, it made me think about if we had an Australian or New Zealand bred horse that we could take through the grades and build them towards two miles because it is a winnable race,” Waller said.
“It was great for breeders and great for the Australian industry.
“Don’t just throw your hands in the air and say, it’s going to be won by an overseas horse every year. Our Australian horses, Australian stayers—we still breed them. We just can’t give up.”
In that vein, Kadavar will kick off a campaign geared towards a Melbourne Cup start when he lines up in the Premier’s Cup Prelude (1800m) at Randwick this weekend.
Waller has identified him as a genuine stayer and the horse’s record indicates as much.
He is unbeaten in four starts over 2400 metres and his bloodlines are laden with stamina, Kadavar being by 2015 Victoria Derby winner Tarzino out of 2007 Oaks winner Arapaho Miss.
“I’m not saying he is going to win a Melbourne Cup, but he is being set for a Melbourne Cup,” Waller said.
“Hence the reason he had a run in the Scone Cup and then another in the Lord Mayors Cup to time our run. He will run over 1800, gradually build towards a Metropolitan and see where we get from there.”
Kadavar is first emergency for the Cup Prelude but with track conditions expected to be heavy, there is likely to be scratchings.
Waller is also relying on that theory for second reserve Saltcoats, who will be having his third run of the campaign and who the trainer believes is ready to peak after closing nicely when third to Robusto in the Winter Challenge (1500m) last start.
“He was great through the line the other day,” he said.
“He needs a couple of scratchings to get into the race but if he gets into the field he will be hard to beat.”
Waller has five runners safely in the field, including 2024 Group 1 Tancred Stakes runner-up More Felons, who is returning from a tendon injury.
