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By Ray Hickson

Can superstar Via Sistina be better in 2025 than what we saw in the spring?

Trainer Chris Waller (Pic: Grant Guy)

Based on her stunning spring, expectations are high for her return in Saturday’s Group 2 $300,000 Petaluma Apollo Stakes (1400m) and trainer Chris Waller says while it’s a high bar Via Sistina has set what he is certain of is the mare has now fully acclimatised.

In the 12 months since she arrived in Sydney, Via Sistina has only been beaten twice.

Waller, who also has defending champ Fangirl plus Atishu and Lindermann in the Apollo, said he couldn’t be happier with how the seven-year-old has returned as she looks to keep her unbeaten Australian first-up record intact.

“In her first prep she was just off the plane and quarantine and last prep, although it was spring, her coat didn’t come right until after the Cox Plate,’’ he said.

“Her demeanour was never a problem but she’s certainly very relaxed and happy.

“It’s a short break from the spring now to Apollo Stakes Day so I guess they don’t get too far away on you in terms of fitness.

“At the same time she’s had two trials and an exhibition gallop so she’s well prepared. She’s at the right weight she needs to be starting the prep and mentally she’s great.”

The Yulong owned mare kicked off last prep winning the Group 1 Winx Stakes and then ventured to Melbourne where she added the Turnbull, Cox Plate and Champions Stakes to her record.

Via Sistina, $2.15 with TAB on Wednesday, is on a Sydney based path to the Group 1 $5m Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) where Waller hopes she can go one better than last year’s remarkable edition won by Pride Of Jenni.

He said the Group 1 Verry Elleegant Stakes (1600m) on March 1 will be her next step then it’ll be either the George Ryder (1500m) or Ranvet Stakes (2000m) on Golden Slipper Day.

“I’d be leaning to the Ranvet but with her, she’s pretty versatile and I’ll just see what she needs to go into the Queen Elizabeth which is obviously the grand final,’’ he said.

“It’s a privilege to be training a horse like her, to have won a Cox Plate in a track record and just the way she did it.”

While Via Sistina has risen to the top of the stable’s pecking order, Waller warned that Fangirl can’t be underestimated.

The six-year-old won the Apollo Stakes, giving Waller his sixth win in the race, in a canter first-up last spring and she’s had a similar build up. It’s also easy to forget that Fangirl started $2.40 in the Winx Stakes last spring against Via Sistina’s $11.

“Fangirl is very effective over 1400m and a mile so if there’s a chink in Via Sistina’s armour it’s probably first-up,’’ he said.

“She didn’t get a very good path (in that Winx Stakes), she went back and it was a slowly run race and Via Sistina came up the inside.

“She’s come back well, she’s a year older and she’s going through her paces. She’s a bit of a plain Jane, she doesn’t give you much (at home) but she does on race day.”

Waller said there are options for Fangirl in the autumn but would prefer to keep her in Sydney for the Verry Elleegant second-up, unless she finishes “a long way off” Via Sistina.

The Group 2 $300,000 Asahi Super Dry Expressway Stakes (1200m) shapes as a pivotal race for classy mare Joliestar’s campaign with Waller still to settle on what he feels is her most effective trip.

Joliestar hasn’t raced since finishing seventh in both the TAB Everest and Golden Eagle and Waller said he feels she’s in the same sort of form that saw her win the Show County first-up in the spring over the same track and distance.

“We’re still working out whether we will get her out to a mile,’’ he said.

Via Sistina and Fangirl run second and third in a Warwick Farm trial on January 30

“She’s got a lot of speed and I’d say we’ll be going to the Canterbury Stakes second-up.

“If she wins that then she’ll probably go to the TJ and if she doesn’t she will probably go down the mares path.”

Olenita, who won the Nivison first-up at 1200m last spring, also returns in the Expressway.

Chris Waller on Lady Shenandoah (Race 7): “You’ve seen how she’s trialled, she’s obviously come back pretty sharp and we’re excited by that. She’s pretty good and I think she did it all on raw ability in the early part of her three-year-old year.”

On Declichy Boulevard (Race 7): “In the autumn you see horses that take the next step and I think she will be one of them. She trialled really well first time and in the second one we just shut her down and let her relax.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting