Waiting for the result of a photo finish can be agonising for a trainer, but with the trifecta in the bag Chris Waller could afford to be calm.
Race favourite Dubaiinstyle ($3.90) gave Sydney’s premier trainer the win in the Dooleys Handicap (2000m) at Rosehill on Saturday, with stablemates Firebird Flyer ($11) and So Willie ($8.50) filling the placings.
Dubaiinstyle hit the lead at the 150m mark and managed to hold on from the fast-finishing Firebird Flyer, which Waller thought had beaten her stablemate.
“To tell you the truth, I thought Dubaiinstyle did kick back a couple of strides short of the post,” he said.
“But he did lunge and obviously that’s what the camera’s seen as well.”
Winning jockey Tye Angland also thought Tim Clark and Firebird Flyer had won.
All three were on a one-week back up from Randwick last weekend, but Waller said he was confident they would perform well.
“I didn’t have a gun to my head and I can make decisions based on what my gut feeling tells me,” he said.
“Sometimes it can backfire, but I think with a bigger stable you learn to take those decisions.”
Dubaiinstyle’s win took the gelding’s record to three wins from 17 starts, with two of them coming in the past seven days.
“It’s just so good to see him put a couple of wins on the board together because it’s at the end of a preparation, and we expected a lot more at the start of the preparation,” Waller said.
Waller said Dubaiinstyle could head for a spell but expected him to graduate to provincial cups or stakes races in his next preparation.
