Sydney mare Red Tracer kept the Chris Waller bandwagon rolling at Caulfield, blowing away her opposition in the Group Two Tristarc Stakes over 1400 metres.
Red Tracer finished third behind Streama last year, but this time round the Group One winner was the one to beat.
Red Tracer - Photo by Sarah Ebbett
Nash Rawiller was content to sit third behind front runner Steps In Time for much of the race then unleashed at the 300m mark to put pressure on the leaders and was racing away at the 100m.
Red Tracer ($3.90 fav) won by 2-3/4 lengths from Koonoomoo ($31) with Ava’s delight ($41) another 1-1/4 lengths third.
It was Waller’s second win on the program following Boban’s victory in the Moonga Stakes.
He described Red Tracer as his stable’s “little young lady”.
“She fights like a tiger and was probably the smallest horse in the race,” Waller said.
“She carries big weights week in week out against good horses on all sorts of tracks – she’s just a beauty.”
She will now get set for the fillies and mares race – the Myer Classic – at Flemington on Derby Day.
“She deserves to be running in that,” Waller said.
Rawiller said he would have preferred to sit back a little further in the race but his mount had “an amazing turn of foot”.
Rawiller was on More Joyous when she won the race in 2011 and although he wouldn’t rate Red Tracer above that mare he said “she has a heart as big as herself”.
