It was just a fortnight ago that Craig Williams had the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup favourite.
But Racing Victoria vets scratched Sir Delius, so now the champion jockey is on the hunt for a Melbourne Cup ride.
And he has the luxury of choosing between Cox Plate runner-up Buckaroo and stable mate Birdman.
But Williams has to wait to see whether Waller will run Buckaroo, who passed his scans yesterday.
Waller said the stable will make the call on Buckaroo ‘as late as possible’ on Derby Day.
“It’s 50:50 at the moment, there is a lot of discussion,” Waller said
“He had a tough run (Melbourne Cup last year) … he didn’t come through it that well but there were reasons for it.”
“We have to make sure we get it right, we are trying to go through an analytical approach to make sure he can not only run in the Melbourne Cup, but he will be capable of winning.”
Waller said forecast rain won’t impact any decision on Buckaroo.
“We’ve seen him just about pull off the biggest weight for age race in Australia on Saturday and another 1200m is different territory,” he said.
