McDonald and Waller bring up an elite 50 as Via Sistina shines once again on Champions Day
Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock) produced a dominant display to score a remarkable 12th triumph at the highest level when successfully defending her crown in Saturday’s Champions Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) on a wet, windy and unseasonably cold day at Flemington.
The heavy conditions did not faze the reigning Australian Horse of the Year, who tracked up three-wide with cover under James McDonald and put her rivals away in typically effortless fashion. She crossed the line 2.8 lengths ahead of Zambardo (Belardo) with Tom Kitten (Harry Angel) finishing a further 0.7 lengths away in third.
Last year Via Sistina landed the Group 1 off the back of a victory in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) and she repeated the feat on Saturday.
Chris Waller said he was delighted to see the mare continue to perform at the highest level as she approaches the twilight of her career.
“She was tough today. She went back from the draw, James didn’t panic and it was awesome to see her in the straight,” the winning trainer said.
“They [Yulong] are sportsmen, they love their racing. I knew not to ask because I knew they’d have liked her to race here. It was as simple as that.”
Waller said since joining his stable in 2024, Via Sistina has gone from strength to strength and 11th Group 1s later can now boast just shy of $19.5 million in career earnings.
“We were told she was a very good horse. Her international form was something special and it’s rare for us to get a really high–class horse down here like her and she was just maturing,” he said.
“We’ve got her at the right time. They did an amazing job with her over there looking after her. She was a big, raw mare and didn’t worry about her age. She’s just matured.
Despite the baltic conditions in Melbourne, Waller said the racing at Flemington had given fans a day to savour.
“Seeing the Sprint, the Mile and now this race, it’s giving everyone an extra taste of the great horses,” he said. “They have given the racing public something to cheer for and what a great day it’s been with Ceolwulf, Giga Kick and now Via Sistina. Three serious horses on an amazing day of racing.
“They’re tough horses and when you look after them, they look after you.”
The win marked an impressive milestone for the Waller / McDonald axis, with the victory delivering the combination a 50th Group 1 win in partnership.
Waller said: “It is an honour to be working with him. It makes my job and possibly his job that little bit easier.
“There’s no pressure, no pre-race stress, and I didn’t even give any instructions.
“He said ‘I’ll go and ride her like Hughie [Bowman] used to ride Winx’, best horse in the race, give her some clean air, and I said, ‘that sounds good to me.”
McDonald was enjoying his ninth Group 1 win on board the mare and described her as a ‘pleasure to ride.’
“She deserves her champion status and I thought being a dual Cox Plate winner it’s very satisfying,” the winning rider said.
“She sits alongside some of the greats that have ever graced our racetracks and I think she really deserves that because she’s been a long servant and a fantastic one at that.
“How good are they [Waller team]? They just prep them up beautifully, Waller and his team. She was cool today, real cool,” he said. “Every time he says one is improving, it’s improving. He said that about Via today and he was spot on.
“She started her prep in amazing fashion. Certain things didn’t go her way, but when you’re riding a dual Cox Plate winner on Champions Day and the last Group 1 of a fantastic four days, it is very special.
“It felt like every man and his dog was on her today but she duly obliged and the race couldn’t have panned out any better for us, to be fair.
“It was just like riding a trial early and letting her blend in at the six [hundred], four, two, and that’s all she did.”
Bred by Laundry Cottage Stud, Via Sistina is the fifth and very much the best of seven named foals out of the unraced Nigh (Galileo). Suggesting major influence from Fastnet Rock (Danehill) in their mating during his shuttling career to Ireland, only one other of Nigh’s offspring has won, and that is Fougere (Bated Breath), who claimed only a Nottingham handicap in 19 starts.
Via Sistina is another example of Fastnet’s potency when crossed with daughters of Coolmore’s perennial breed-shaping sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), with the mare among the 31 stakes winners for the nick and she is also one of 11 Group 1 scorers bred on the cross.
The yearling Via Sistina was sold by agent Jamie Railton to Stephen Hillen Bloodstock for £5,000 from Book 3 of Tattersalls December Yearling Sale in 2019. From those inauspicious beginnings, she was bought by Evergreen Equine at Tattersalls’ December Mares Sale in 2023 for 2,700,000gns, from the draft of Ireland’s Grove Stud, before coming to Australia to race in the Yulong green and white.
Nigh now has a three-year-old filly yet to race called Via Sienna (Bated Breath), and last year had a colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).