Olentia’s appearance at Rosehill wasn’t always in Chris Waller’s plans, but a poor scope result from stablemate Extremely Lucky prompted a late change of tact – and a winning one.
Waller flagged during the week that only Extremely Lucky was likely to run in Saturday’s Schweppes Handicap (1200m) as he didn’t want the two horses to clash.
However, when the new stable recruit presented with a “dirty scope” in the 24 hours before the race, Waller withdrew him and rolled the dice on Olentia being classy enough to overcome her wide gate.
“I didn’t want her to clash with the stablemate and she drew wide, so I put James (Mcdonald) on both of them,” Waller said.
“As it worked out, the other horse didn’t make it today, he will run next week instead, so I reversed it around.
“It was just a matter of having the confidence in her from the draw and I said to James, just make sure she’s within three lengths of them turning for home and she should be right.”
Olentia bowed out of the autumn as a Group 3 winner and Waller is thrilled with how well she has returned for her four-year-old season.
While he isn’t one to make outlandish statements, he is happy to declare the Star Thoroughbreds mare a Group 1 horse in waiting.
“She will win a Group One race, I think,” Waller said.
“She’s an Invincibella-type horse, a Foxplay-type horse.
“In the autumn, she announced herself on the scene, won a decent race and she handles all tracks.
“She has come back really well, big and strong, right temperament and ready to announce, ‘I’m here’ and ready to take on some bigger things.”
Waller hasn’t cemented an autumn program for Olentia but races like the Epsom Handicap and Golden Eagle will be among those considered.
McDonald hadn’t ridden Olentia since guiding her to a hard-fought win in benchmark company at Hawkesbury in April and was blown away by her improvement.
“I remember the last time I rode her at Hawkesbury she took the length of the straight to win,” McDonald said.
“But against good, fit sprinters today, she picked them up very quickly. She obviously had lengths up her sleeve.”
