Last Saturday’s Railway Stakes winner Good Project will return to Melbourne and won’t run in the Group 1 $1m Kingston Town Classic (1800m) at Ascot in Perth in two weeks.
Railway Stakes winner Good Project won’t contest the Kingston Town Classic at Ascot. Photo by Steve Hart.
Good Project became trainer Chris Waller’s tenth Group 1 winner for the season when he led all of the way to win the Group 1 $1m James Boag’s Premium-Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot last Saturday.
First thoughts were that Good Project would stay in Perth for the weight for age Kingston Town Classic but it was reported this morning that the stable would not pay the $22,000 late entry fee and he would be heading straight back to the Eastern states.
Waller always had an above average opinion of Good Project and was not surprised he was able to step up to Group 1 company successfully.
“He has been a horse that got up in the ratings as a three-year-old very quick but was always a tough horse,” Waller said.
“He was competing in Sydney every week and I think sometimes we underestimate how strong that form is. He got a great ride from Craig [Williams] and he always had a win like that in him and my team have done a great job to him there.”
Waller’s latest Group 1 winner was only having his first taste of Group 1 racing but jockey Craig Williams wasn’t frightened to but the four year to the test from the outset and let him dictate the race from the front.
“On the way to the gates he was a bit cheeky, so I gave him a good warm-up to get him into race mode,” Williams said.
“I got the instructions from Chris throughout the day and he said to trust the horse and this is what we had targeted him for.
“I was lucky to have the horse to win it.
“I was a little bit worried when I was under pressure rather than just travelling around the bend, but he did well, he had been trained up to the minute and he is a lovely horse.
“He is now a Group 1 winner and it gives me a great thrill to come over to Perth and win one of their biggest races.
Before Saturday’s Railway Stakes win, Good Project had only had one other run in Group company for a seventh to Jabali in the Group 2 $400,000 Sky Racing Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Doomben during the Brisbane Winter Carnival.
Good Project’s s latest form before he headed to the West included a win over 1600m in a BenchMark 92 Handicap at Randwick on October 17 followed by a second in a 1400m BenchMark 90 Handicap at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.
The Railway Stakes was Good Project’s fifth win from twenty-one starts and took his prizemoney earnings plus bonuses to $974,710.
