Chris Waller had a stellar outing at Rosehill on Saturday when putting together a quarter of winners over the 10-race card, and five-year-old Yulong-owned mare Eagle Express (Alabama Express) was one of the most exciting when taking out the seventh event.
Carrying a featherweight 52kg, Eagle Express was perfectly positioned in the slipstream behind Hawker Hall (Russian Revolution) until well into the home straight, at which point she found a gap and pounced to win by a third of a length over Grand Impact (NZ) (Satono Aladdin {JPN}).
Waller was quick to praise the tactics of jockey Zac Lloyd, who had given the mare an expert steer to secure her fifth career victory and over $300,000 in prize money.
“It’s great for Sydney racing,” he said. “The competition at the top is great and there’s a few chomping away there which really strengthens our racing. Good healthy competition is what we want, and we’ve got plenty of it at the moment.”
The Gr.3 Show County next week had initially been the jumping off point for Eagle Express’s spring preparation, but Waller had elected instead to be conservative with her and give her another confidence-boosting win before returning to stakes level.
“She’s a talented mare and we just wanted to see her do that and justify another year with us,” he said. “I was down at the (Yulong) farm during the week and the way it is developing and evolving, it’s no surprise the powerhouse they are in the industry.
“With the stock they’ve purchased, they are boosting the Australian breeding economy and racing economy and we need it.”
Waller’s other winners that filled out his quartet started early with Go Bloodstock’s impressive colt Steel Will (I Am Invincible) winning the second race, a Benchmark 72 that has previously been won by the likes of Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) and Ninja (Farnan).
He then won the fourth event with Concordia Wind (Justify {USA}) in the Hermitage Thoroughbreds colours and sent out the Yulong colours to victory again in the ninth race with Althoff (Written Tycoon).
Pedigree: Eagle Express is the first foal out of Crowned Eagle (Tavistock {NZ}), a half-sister to three Stakes winners in Gr.1 Champagne Stakes winner Go Indy Go (Bernadini {USA}), Gr.3 SAJC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Air Assault (Justify {USA}) – a race also won by Go Indy Go – and Gr.3 DC McKay Stakes winner Essay Raider (Bernadini {USA}). This is the close family of Gr.1 Caulfield Cup victress Southern Speed (Southern Image {USA}), who has been a Stakes producer in Japan.
Simon Zahra Racing and D Romanelli purchased a full brother to Eagle Express at this year’s Premier sale. Crowned Eagle has a Written Tycoon yearling colt bound for the 2027 sales and is in foal to More Than Looks (USA).
Written for TTRAusNZ
