Jim Cassidy will ride New Zealand Group One winner Sacred Falls in Saturday’s Hobartville Stakes replacing the suspended Leith Innes.
Sacred Falls suffered the first defeat of his seven-start career when he finished fifth as favourite in the Royal Sovereign Stakes last Saturday week.
The NZ 2000 Guineas winner was 3-1/4 lengths behind Rebel Dane who will oppose him again along with Royal Sovereign runner-up Urquidez.
But his biggest obstacle in the Hobartville will be Pierro, Australia’s champion juvenile of last season.
Pierro has never been beaten in Sydney, suffering his only two defeats from 10 starts when second to All Too Hard in the Caulfield Guineas last spring and third behind Ocean Park and All Too Hard in the Cox Plate.
Innes, who has been aboard Sacred Falls in all his starts, has incurred two careless riding suspensions in February and will also miss important races at the Auckland Cup carnival.
Waller had also entered Sacred Falls in a 1500m Benchmark race at the Rosehill meeting but confirmed on Monday the colt would take his place in the Group Two Hobartville (1400m).
Sacred Falls is owned by Malaysian businessman Dato Yap Kim San whose first investment in New Zealand thoroughbreds brought instant rewards with 2011 Australian Derby winning filly Shamrocker who was trained by Danny O’Brien.
