Waller eyes historic 200th Group 1 as Adelaide Carnival looms

Chris Waller has only ever won two Group 1 races in Adelaide, but it could be the place he brings up his Group 1 double ton, to emulate legends Tommy Smith and Bart Cummings, next Saturday.

Waller moved to 198 Group 1 victories as Tim Clark steered Fireball home in the Champagne Stakes, and Nash Rawiller was at his best from the front in the All Aged Stakes on Beiwacht at Randwick on Saturday.

The champion trainer will get his 200 as he has the best season of his career in terms of Group 1 wins, and will then look to hunt down 254 top-level wins of Smith and Cummings.

He will team with his regular partner in Group 1s next weekend, James McDonald, who heads to Adelaide to ride Panova in the Australasian Oaks and Generosity in the Robert Sangster Stakes.

“I haven’t had a lot of experience there. I have been there once, and it was an absolute disaster,” McDonald told Ron Dufficy on Sky Racing.

“I’m going back next week to hopefully make amends.”

Getta Good Feeling is the $3 favourite for the Oaks, but McDonald made a good case for the Carbine Club winner from the spring, Panova, after her frustrating autumn in Sydney.

“Panova is a very, very capable on her day, she is a very good horse,” McDonald said. “Even Chris will tell you, she has been a run away each run she has had this time in. Every time she has stepped up in distance, she has been a half run short.

“She has caught up now, she has had that 10-furlong run in a big race in the Vinery [Stakes] and she could be ready to peak.

“She had a little tick over trial in Melbourne [on Friday] and went really, really well.”

McDonald rode 10 Group 1 winners, all for Waller, during the Sydney autumn, but he still laments Challenge Stakes winner Generosity’s defeat by a half-length in the Galaxy, where she ran fifth only beaten a half-length. She will top off her Royal Ascot preparation in the Robert Sangster Stakes as a $6 second pick behind Point Barrow.

“She can make up for the Galaxy in this race,” “McDonald said.

After Adelaide, McDonald will jump on the plane to Hong Kong to link with Romantic Warrior again on Champions day. He labelled the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, one of the biggest challenges Romantic Warrior has faced.

“It is going to be the toughest test he has come up against with that Masquerade Ball. He is a proper horse.” McDonald said. “He went down a head to Calangadan in the Japan Cup, so he is an extremely good horse, and he is a young horse too.

“Apart from Forever Young, this will be the toughest test to date. It will be a good clash.”

McDonald believes the pair will match motors back in the field and make their runs together.

“[Masquerade Ball] was about three pairs back over a mile-and-a-half in a Japan Cup. It was a race that looks like it was run at a good tempo, similar to the mile-and-a-quarter in Hong Kong.

“I’m tipping they will be in similar positions [in the run]. It should be a great contest.

“You also have to throw in Royal Champion, who has gone to another level since he went back home [from Australia], and he won like an aeroplane in Saudi Arabia.

“It will be no pushover.”