Premiership winning trainer Chris Waller is looking to put a new lease of life back into the old legs of tough Group 1 performer Rangirangdoo with regular beach work leading up to his return to the racetrack for the Spring Carnival at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
Rangirangdoo will resume for the Spring in wither the Group 2 Chelmsford Stakes or the Group 3 Tramway Stakes. Photo by: Steve Hart
Multiple Group 1 winner Rangirangdoo has been nominated for the Group 2 $175,000 Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) and the Group 3 $125,000 Tramway Stakes (1400m) and Waller will make a decision later in the week which race to start the eight year old in.
“He is going well and he has been going to the beach,” Waller said.
“He works in the morning and then gets on a truck and goes to Botany and really enjoys it.”
“I’m probably a bit softer on these older horses too.”
“I’ll look at the races and what weight he gets in the Tramway.”
A first up run over the 1400m of the Tramway would suit Rangirangdoo, but Waller would be unlikely to test the old stager if the Handicapper was too severe on him and a first up start in the 1600m weight for age Chelmsford Stakes would be an alternative option.
Waller has also left his options open for later in the Spring and has entered Rangirangdoo in the Group 1 $500,000 Epsom Handicap (1600m) and the Group 1 $400,000 The Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick on October 6 and will be happy to test the gelding over a middle distance if he can work him up through the distances.
“I think this spring might be the time to try him over the longer trip,” Waller said.
Rangirangdoo will go into Saturday reasonably fit and along with plenty of beach work, has impressed jockey Corey Brown with two solid Rosehill barrier trials.
“He was really good. He’s like an old bottle of red wine,” Brown said.
“He keeps getting better with age.”
Rangirangdoo’s distances have only been stretched to 2000m with his best results being two seconds in Group 1 $400,000 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill in 2010 and 2012 as well as a midfield finish in the 2009 Group 1 $1m Longines Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.
The two million dollar prizemoney earner performed well in the Autumn without winning and as well as his second in the Ranvet, ran fourth to More Joyous in the Group 1 $500,000 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 28 before heading to the spelling paddock.
Waller’s other stable warhorse Danleigh has been nominated for the Chelmsford and showed that he is not a spent force hitting the line hard when third to Pinwheel in the Group 2 $175,000 Pro-Ride Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Warwick Farm on August 25.
Leading Sydney rider Hugh Bowman was aboard Danleigh at has first run back for the Spring and was more than happy with the tough competitor.
“Good return. He went great,” Bowman said after the Warwick Stakes.
The Tramway could also see the first Australian appearance for English import Class Is Class who is a winner at Group 3 level at Haydock and has also been nominated for the Epsom and the Metropolitan.
AJC Derby winner Shoot Out and potential Group 1 performer Said Com are also among the Waller stable nominations for the Tramway Handicap.
