Chris Waller will aim Tropicana Girl at the Queensland Oaks

Tropicana Girl has proved to Sydney trainer Chris Waller that she is more than worthy of a Queensland Oaks campaign after posting a convincing win over her rivals at Canterbury yesterday.

The three-year-old Redoute’s Choice filly will now go to the $400,000 Oaks at Eagle Farm on June 4.

“She will go to the Oaks now,” Waller said.

Waller was pull of praise for jockey Tim Clark’s riding tactics aboard Tropicana Girl in the race.

“It was an outstanding ride and in my opinion it’s the type of ride you would take to the apprentices’ school to show them,” Waller said.

“It shows what you need to do if you have to work early.

“You need to compensate for that a bit in the run somewhere and he was able to do that for five or six hundred metres down the back straight by giving her a breather, and she was able to win the race.”

The trainer said that he had made the decision to pay the first round acceptance fee for the Oaks before the race, not yet knowing how she would perform.

“At 9 o’clock this morning I had to make the decision whether to pay the first acceptance and I did that,” Waller said.

Tropicana Girl, who has now won two of her 13 race starts, has always been aimed at a Queensland Oaks start.
Waller believes that, while it will be Tropicana Girl’s first attempt at Group level, she will be well equipped to take on the challenge.

“It’s a big step but she has done the fitness work,” Waller said.

“It was always the plan, and you’ve got to be in it to win it.”