By Ray Hickson
Time has been the friend of Chris Waller’s promising colt Gatsby’s and the champion trainer is looking for guide to his spring goals when he returns at Rosehill on Saturday.
The new season three-year-old created a big impression with his debut win back in February before he finished fourth as an odds-on favourite in the Group 2 Pago Pago Stakes a week before the Golden Slipper.
Waller said he’s shown in two trials leading into the Listed $200,000 Sydney Markets Rosebud (1100m) that he’s strengthened up and should be in for a fruitful spring.
“It all came a bit too soon for him in the autumn and he’s had a decent break and come back really well,’’ Waller said.
“He’s one of our better three-year-olds for sure. We’re hoping he’s come back a little bit better.”
James McDonald, who has won two of the past three editions of the Rosebud, rides Gatsby’s from the outside of the eight horse field.
Gatsby’s was $3.20 favourite for the Rosebud on Wednesday and is a $15 chance in TAB’s all-in market on next month’s $1 million Golden Rose (1400m). Waller said whether he gets that far will be determined in his first two runs of the campaign.
“We’ll get Saturday out of the way and (the Run To The Rose) will be the logical step if he stays in Sydney.
“He looks like a sprinter, he’s a nice medium sized horse.”
Waller also has Switzerland and Emirate on the $15 line or better for the three-year-old Group 1 run on September 28.
Meanwhile, classy mare Hinged will run in a non-stakes race – not including Group 1 equivalents like the Golden Eagle and 7 Stakes – for the first time since she was a two-year-old in the Precise Air Handicap (1400m).
And with the 3kg claim for Ben Osmond she’ll carry just 55.5kg.
The six-year-old has contested 18 Group 1 races, winning the Surround at three, and was narrowly beaten first-up in the autumn in the Group 2 Guy Walter over the 1400m.
“We thought about (the breeding barn) but we’re happy to push on at this stage,’’ Waller said.
“She’s run top four in Group 1 races something like ten times so she’s not far off them.”
Stayer Francesco Guardi, with Zac Wadick taking 3kg off, also resumes in the 1400m event and it’ll be his first start since last year’s Caulfield Cup.
With two trials under his belt Waller said he has come back really well.
All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting