He had been a frustrating conveyance for local punters but the Chris Waller-trained import Birdman ($5.50) has finally saluted on Australian shores.
After getting a perfect run in transit from the inside alley for rider Kerrin Mcevoy, the five-year-old was able to extricate off the fence to chase down the early tearaway leader Full Count Felicia and stave off a powerful finish from Adelaide River ($19) by the barest of margins. Another Waller galloper Etna Rosso ($51) was almost four lengths away in third.
Whilst it has taken nine local starts to break the drought, Waller has a potential Cups campaign in mind and was happy to see him get the job done today.
“It is (overdue) from a punter’s perspective. From our perspective he’s just steadily been working towards something. He needed to start doing it,” Waller said.
“His fresh up runs were good. He got to a more suitable distance today, had a lovely draw, a nice run in transit and a good confident ride.
“I’ll have a talk to (connections), they are great tacticians and planners of races, so I use their knowledge a lot.
“But, logically, he’s heading the right way towards to Cups, that’s what he was bought for a year out.”
Rider McEvoy had other big races in mind, and thought the dry track potentially didn’t suit his mount.
“Ideally I think a little bit more juice in the ground suits him better as well,” McEvoy said.
“He definitely floated when he got there so he just thought his job was done. Luckily he rallied when he saw the other horse coming.
“If he can stay a bit further the Metropolitan is going to be right up his alley.”
Birdman is now $4 favourite in future’s markets for the Metropolitan to be held at Randwick on October 4, $11 for the Caulfield Cup on October 18 and $26 for the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November.
