A cautious Chris Waller will protect stable star Rangirangdoo to try to give him the spring preparation he wasn’t able to have last year.
Rangirangdoo was scratched on Saturday morning from the Group One All-Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick with Waller not willing to risk the dual Group One winner of a heavy Randwick surface.
The gelding will now go to the paddock with the aim of returning for the spring carnival.
Rangirangdoo, who was to have been aimed at the Cox Plate last year, missed the entire spring through injury but returned for a two-run autumn campaign and netted a Group One win in the George Ryder Stakes (1500m).
He pulled up scratchy after that race and Waller had that in mind when he withdrew him from the final day of the Sydney autumn carnival.
“I would never have forgiven myself if something would have happened to him (in the All-Aged),” Waller said.
“He pulled up sore after the George Ryder but two days later he was fine. I can’t tell you why he was sore other than the pressure of the race must have done something to him.
“To bring your best mate on a float to run him on a heavy track knowing that after last start he tried his heart out and pulled up sore, I couldn’t live with that if something happened to him.”
Waller said pressing on to the Queensland winter carnival was highly unlikely, preferring to make sure the son of Pentire was 100 per cent when he returns to action in the spring.
The six-year-old has won 10 of his 21 starts including the 2010 Doncaster Mile and this year’s George Ryder at Group One level.
Waller still expects to be a player at the upcoming winter carnival in Brisbane with Triple Honour and My Kingdom Of Fife among the team to head north.
Victorious in the 2008 Doncaster, Triple Honour holds a special place in Waller’s stable as his first Group One winner while European import My Kingdom Of Fife’s star is shining brightly after his Queen Elizabeth Stakes success.
AAP TURF
