Today’s Group 3 $150,000 tab.com.au Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) winner Junoob could find himself lining up in the Group 1 $4m Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 19.
The Chris Waller trained English import Junoob ($4.40) went through the heavy ground at Rosehill to score a tenacious win over Hippopus ($51) and Lucky Lago ($17) and the leading Sydney trainer in now seriously considering stepping him up to weight for age company.
Junoob has continued to improve all through this preparation and today’s win was his fourth win from his last five starts.
After looking to be struggling at the top of the straight when Entirely Platinum ($3.50 favourite) shot away and looked the likely winner, Junoob gathered up his momentum and squeezed in between runners to score a narrow win.
“I said to myself what did I run him for,” Waller said as he saw Junoob going nowhere at the 400m mark.
“That was at the 400m and basically I thought he is going to battle away, he’s a tough horse to run third or fourth but gee to see him fight like that that’s pretty creditable.”
“Obviously he has untapped ability and we haven’t seen it before. He’s a pretty handy horse.”
“It’s pretty hard to tell them (owners) that you shouldn’t run in a $4 million race or a $3 million Doncaster. He will be a chance of going for the Queen Elizabeth if we really thought he was a legitimate chance.”
The $4m weight for age Queen Elizabeth Stakes is run on the second day of the Randwick Carnival of ‘The Championships’.