Waller moves within one of 200 with Oaks win, while Tassie-owned mare causes Sangster upset

Chris Waller headed into Saturday’s pair of Group One races at Morphettville with 198 Group One victories to his career and the real possibility of reaching ‘The 200 Club’, members currently just Bart Cummings and TJ Smith.

However, by day’s end the Sydney trainer had to settle at 199, winning the Australasian Oaks with his three-year-old Trapeze Artist filly Panova, while Generosity, by Divine Prophet, was an unplaced favourite behind the Tasmanian fairytale, Geegees Mistruth, later in the Robert Sangster Stakes.

Panova had headed to South Australia off the back of a last-start seventh in the G1 Vinery Stud Stakes. Saturday’s Oaks win brings the filly back to Group form after her pair of Group Three victories in the Reginald Allen Stakes and Carbine Club Stakes last spring.

“It was a very good ride,” Waller said of jockey James McDonald, who had won the previous race, the Gr2 Tobin Bronze Stakes, aboard Tycoon Star for a Yulong syndicate.

“He got one off the fence for a little while, and that was probably the winning of the race because she had a tricky draw.”

Panova is owned by the Surace family’s B2B Thoroughbreds and was an initial buy for Ciaron Maher at the Magic Millions Gold Yearling Sale two years ago, costing $325,000. She boasts a smart, Turangga Farm-bred female family that has thrown up the likes of the highly rated Elite Falls.

Local filly Mating Call followed Panova home for second, with Ciaron Maher’s Paltrow Miss finishing third.

J-MAC AND WALLER CONQUER ADELAIDE 🔵⚫

Panova has won the Australasian Oaks!@mcacajamez @cwallerracing pic.twitter.com/yDmOzKzBKA

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) April 25, 2026

Following the victory, the former Tasmanian juvenile champion Geegees Mistruth spoiled the Waller party with a narrow victory in the Robert Sangster Stakes that saw a blanket finish of four horses at the line.

Initially trained in Tasmania by Stuart Gandy, where the Wordsmith mare had won her first four races before Group-placed efforts at Caulfield and Moonee Valley, she was transferred to Te Akau trainer Mark Walker’s satellite yard at Cranbourne last spring.

Described as an ‘enigma’, Geegees Mistruth was three-times placed at stakes level for Walker before refusing to take part in the Oakleigh Plate, and then she ran an unplaced effort in the Newmarket in early March.

She headed to Morphettville on Saturday with a starting price of $31 and won the Sangster under Jordan Childs in a photo finish from Bridal Waltz and the seasoned Charm Stone.

“She was really relaxed today,” said Childs. “I’ve watched her in the past and she can be quite up and about, but she went down to the gates lovely and stood in there well. She just seemed cool, calm and collected today, which probably had her in good staid to save all that energy for the last bit.”

GEEGEES MISTRUTH WINS A CLASSIC SANGSTER 🟢🟣

WHAT A FINISH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/UPYlTZvnNb

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) April 25, 2026

Ben Gleeson, assistant trainer for Te Akau Racing, said Geegees Mistruth deserved her maiden Group One. He described the mare’s journey as one that “sums up racing”.

“The owners, who are fantastic people, are from Tasmania. They’ve flown over every single time and we appreciate their support greatly, and they deserve success. We’re just relieved we could get it for them on this day.”

Geegees Mistruth was bred and is owned by Elizabeth Geard Racing, Elizabeth the widow of the late Paul Geard, a popular Tassie local who died in March 2023. The Geard horses, mostly, carry the ‘Geegee’ moniker and many are by the Geard’s Wordsmith, who resides on Stu and Ruth Gandy’s farm north of Hobart.

The Robert Sangster Stakes victory makes this mare the best of the Geards’ horses by prizemoney after the million-dollar-earning Geegees Blackflash a decade ago, who never raced outside Tasmania.