Chris Waller showed his team was ready to play a major role in Queensland when he had a two centre treble on Saturday.
The premier Sydney trainer won with Colosimo and Loving Home at Ipswich and with expensive galloper Silverwin at the Gold Coast.
Waller opened a Queensland stable at the Gold Coast in early August and his stable foreman Paul Shailer admitted it had taken time to acclimatise.
“The tracks are harder up here and it takes the horses time to get used to the hotter weather. Also we have had to learn the differences in feeding them,” Shailer said.
“We have 18 horses up here and few more to come once we finish renovations we will be getting about 25 to 28 all up.”
The new regime was starting to work at Ipswich with Colosimo winning earlier in the day and then the Waller pair Loving Home ($5.50) beating stablemate Vassal ($2.60) by a neck in the Spring Stayers Cup (2150m).
“That was exactly how to ride Loving Home. You have to let him get back and run home. He ran very good sectionals at his previous start and he has lived up to it,” Shailer said.
“The good thing is there are races for horses like Loving Home and Vassal every week up here and they can win some more.”
Loving Home and Vassal are owned by syndicates headed by Frank Cook, a long time Waller client who also had horses with Shailer when he trained in New Zealand.
Matt McGillivray got his first winner as a senior jockey when Star Justice ($31) won the Folsom Prison Plate (1000m).
“I wasn’t counting on riding a winner on my first day as a senior rider but it is great to get one straight away,” said McGillivray who finished his apprenticeship on Friday.
