Chris Waller looked like he would need to wait a little longer for his 200th win of the season on the home turn of the third heat of the Banjo Paterson Series at Flemington.
Waller started Saturday on 195 wins for 2013/14 but a treble at Rosehill and a victory at Newcastle brought him to within one of the 200-win mark.
Sacred Flyer started as the $2 favourite but Chris Symons was unable to find a clear run for the seven-year-old until halfway down the straight.
Symons found room for Sacred Flyer at the 150m before the stayer finished the $100,000 contest strongly to beat Hannaford by a half-length while on-pacer Tampere ($17) was third in 2500m event.
“I can’t really say what I was thinking but it was pretty bad. I was anxious to get out and get rolling on him,” Symons said.
“It was probably a blessing that I got held up because he didn’t accelerate like I thought he was going to.”
Waller’s milestone win preceded a running double for fellow trainer Leon Corstens, which included an emotional win with Tried And Tired ($6) in the third heat of the VRC-CRV Winter Championship Series (1400m).
Corstens won the Rod Johnson Handicap (2000m) with the progressive stayer Word Of Mouth ($7 fav) before Tried And Tired proved too strong for the Mick Price-trained Eximius ($8) in his $80,000 test.
Corstens took a moment to compose himself when paying tribute to jockey Steven King during the post-race interview before lauding the consistency of Tried And Tired, which cost just $1700 as a weanling.
“He always showed you a little bit of ability but now he’s maturing, he’s building a solid record,” Corstens said.
Tried And Tired will progress towards the Listed Winter Championship Series Final at Flemington next month while Word Of Mouth is likely to spell during the spring before returning for an autumn campaign.
