You can’t win them all, and champion trainer Chris Waller had to play second fiddle to the Brent Stanley-trained stayer Red Alto in the Cindy Sullivan Memorial at Randwick on Saturday despite having eight of the nine runners.
One for all: Tye Angland and Red Alto on the rails hold off Vaucluse Bay.
The Victorian visitor boxed-seated off the slow pace and had the best sprint to hold of Vaucluse Bay in a driving finish. It continued a good day for Stanley, who trained Summerfest to win at Wangaratta and Mig Energy to a debut victory at Moonee Valley.
Stanley was straight on the phone to Joe Cleary, who was deputising for him at Randwick.
“I hope you sling good,'' Cleary told him. "It's a pretty good day for you.”
Stanley had told Cleary he thought Red Alto was a good chance.
"But I didn't really believe him until they came around the home turn and he loomed up," Cleary said.
Waller could only say “well done” to winning jockey Tye Angland as he passed him on the way to debriefing with his army of riders. Waller then headed to a presentation for his eighth consecutive Sydney trainer’s premiership.
“We have a great team and all horses – the winners and losers – are part of this success,” Waller said.
“As you saw in the last race, you can’t always be a winner, and that’s what is great about racing.”
Waller admitted the slow tempo probably counted against many of his team, including favourite Raqeeq ($3.40), which never looked likely and finished fourth.
“I was probably overly cautious with our tactics,” Waller admitted. “The slow tempo wasn't good for us, but I didn’t want to look like we had pacemakers in the race.”
The speed was a consistent theme from Waller’s jockeys. Hugh Bowman, who was third on Exoteric, Kerrin McEvoy (Raqeeq), Jay Ford (Allcash) and Tim Clark (Follow Suit) all said the tempo didn’t let them get into the race
Angland was the one smiling after he positioned Red Alto ($9.50) perfectly third on the fence and drove to the front at the top of straight.
“We were able to pop over when it was clear the leader wasn’t going to take us anywhere,” Angland said. “When I went, Jason [Collett on Vaucluse Bay] went with me and it was a real fight, but he had that in him.
“It was a bit strange being the only non-Waller runner, but it feels good to win.”
After upsetting the Waller apple cart, Angland made it a race-to-race double when Letter To Juliette scored first-up at 1800m for Garry White as a $34 outsider.
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