Lead Story
Waller leans towards Chispa in Oaks trio
By Trevor Marshallsea
@ANZ_News
Master trainer Chris Waller is leaning towards Chispa (Savabeel) to continue her dramatic rise among his three-pronged assault as he pursues elite win number 202 in Saturday’s Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m).
Waller will saddle $7 chance Chispa, $3.60 favourite Panova (Trapeze Artist) and $11 shot Soverato (Vadamaos) in the $700,000 feature, a week after continuing his stunning top-tier accumulation with Providence (Wootton Bassett) in the Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
Following the Derby, where he had four runners and sealed the quinella for the China Horse Club-Newgate team as Monopolistic (Savabeel) ran second, Waller conceded his preference amid his multiple starters would always be shown by which one of them James McDonald partnered, saying “I’ve got to be accurate in my decisions” to keep the champion rider happy.
That barometer isn’t available this week, with McDonald serving a careless riding ban after his win on Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) in Hong Kong’s Champions & Chater Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) on May 24.
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But Waller on Thursday nominated Chispa, as slightly, the pick of his trio in the important fillies’ Classic, albeit with the caveat that she’ll need luck after a horrendous barrier draw.
His assessment reflects a stunning emergence for the well-bred filly, a homebred for New Zealand breeding giant Sir Peter Vela’s Pencarrow Thoroughbreds.
Three starts ago, Chispa was contesting a fillies and mares’ benchmark 64 at Canterbury at her fourth start, finishing well to run fourth of nine over the 1550m.
She followed with a 2.69 length win in a BM64 at Kensington, appreciating the rise to 1800m, and coming from near the back of the 10-horse field.
That run rated strongly enough to ensure Chispa started a $3.80 favourite when elevated to stakes grade two weeks ago, when second in the ANZ Bloodstock News The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) at Doomben behind Fireball Miss (Bivouac), flashing home again from her customary rearward position.
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Expat Kiwi McDonald has ridden Chispa in her past four starts, and partnered Panova to her last-start top-level breakthrough in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) at Morphettville. Waller conceded it may have been a tough choice for his fellow expat Kiwi for the Oaks, since “Sir Peter Vela is like a godfather to James”.
In any event, Jamie Melham goes aboard Chispa but faces a stern test from the start with the filly having drawn gate 20, which would become barrier 15 of 18 if all five emergencies come out.
Still, Chispa’s usual style of being ridden from the back, a likely stiff tempo at the front of a capacity field and Eagle Farm’s long straight could offset the negatives of the draw.
Asked who he put on top of his three hopes, Waller said, “Chispa, if she gets luck”.
“Chispa looks the boom horse,” he told ANZ News. “Unfortunately the barrier draw hasn’t been kind. She’s going to have to have a little bit of luck fall her way.
“But her run in The Roses was outstanding, and she’s by Savabeel out of a Galileo mare, which are both massive ticks.”
Chispa’s progress continues a run of success for her stamina-blessed dam Scintillula (Galileo). The Irish mare won a Group 3 at Leopardstown over 1800m at three, was second at two in the Curragh’s Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), and ran fourth in the Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and Yorkshire Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m). She then had six starts in Australia and New Zealand, with the best of them her last - a third at Flemington over 2000m.
Scintillula has produced three stakes horses from six runners, all full sisters.
Aside from her sixth foal Chispa, her second foal was the Grahame Begg-trained Butter Chicken (Savabeel), who ran second in Caulfield’s Autumn Classic (Gr 2, 1800m), while fourth foal Waikato Girl won Eagle Farm’s Princess Stakes (Listed, 1600m) for Michael Freedman in 2024.
But there’s also speed in the family, hinting towards Chispa’s turn of foot. Scintillula’s full-sister Cuis Ghaire won two Group threes at two including Royal Ascot’s Albany Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and threw outstanding sprinter Danyah (Invincible Spirit), winner of Dubai’s Al Quoz Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m).
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Galileo’s standing as a broodmare sire continues to boom. He’s currently seventh on that table in Australia, by earnings and stakes winners, despite just 155 runners - the lowest figure among the top 13, and with the six stallions above him averaging 516 apiece, with his star grandchild Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock).
Waller has won 21 Group One’s this season, eclipsing his own Australian record of 19, set last term, with one of those coming from Panova in the Australasian Oaks at Morphettville on April 25.
She was bred by Scone trainer John Ramsey of Turangga Farm from his three-time country winning mare Love Me Quietly (Trusting), with the third dam being triple stakes winner Niagara Falls (Danehill). Owned by the Surace family’s B2B Thoroughbreds, Panova was bought for $325,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale by Ciaron Maher Bloodstock.
Panova’s quality has long been evident, with the filly winning back-to-back Group Three’s last spring at starts four and five, in Randwick’s Reginald Allen Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) and Flemington’s Carbine Club Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m).
In the autumn, she appeared disappointing when seventh in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), rising from 1500m at her previous run. But, as is so often the case, she showed the benefit of that initial 2000m outing by winning the Australasian Oaks over the same trip at her next run, surging home from near the rear after drifting to $11.
With more than a month passing since that Oaks, Panova had a top-up barrier trial at Warwick Farm on May 25, running fifth in the typically quiet Waller way.
As you’d expect for a $3.60 favourite, with the two second elects at $7, Waller is certainly not dismissing Panova’s chances at Eagle Farm, where she’s drawn ideally in gate six for the husband of Chispa’s rider, Ben Melham.
“She’s come through, not just her win in South Australia, but the trip overall, really well,” Waller said.
“We’ve always thought she’s a decent horse, and I think we’ve got her where we need her to be. Plus she’s drawn well, which helps.”
Ahead of a quality-stacked Oaks with many chances, Waller has also been impressed by Soverato.
New Zealand-bred, like Chispa, and bought privately by OTI Racing, the filly is a half-sister to New Zealand Listed winner Formidable (Shocking), who won seven times in Hong Kong as Tianchi Monster.
The pair has class in their third dam Strawberry Fair (Whiskey Road), who won what’s now Rosehill’s Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m), then left one South African dual stakes winner in Taineberry (Centaine), who threw another one in Jalberry (Jallad), who in turn threw three more South African black type victors.
Debuted by Waller as a November three-year-old, Soverato earned black type when second in Randwick’s Adrian Knox Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), then came a solid fifth in the ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) before a 2.39 length sixth in The Roses, steaming home from 13th at the turn.
Soverato has barrier eight, with Ryan Maloney retaining the ride.
“She’s a Kiwi-bred horse, and her run in the roses was very good. She got a long way back and finished really well,” Waller said.
“She’s got a pretty good draw too, so hopefully she’ll go alright.
“So all three of my horses are fit and well. I saw them all gallop at the Gold Coast on Tuesday morning and I couldn’t have been happier with all three.”
Sharing second favouritism with Chispa at $7 is Maher’s The Roses winner Fireball Miss, who drew barrier 18 for Declan Bates.
Soverato shares the third line at $11 with Solid Gold (Savabeel), who’s backing up after fading to fifth in the Queensland Derby over an extra 200 metres, and has gate four for Tommy Berry.
Eagle Farm was a soft 5 on Thursday, with fine weather forecast through raceday bringing the chance of an upgrade.
