What we learned from All Aged Stakes day – It’s Waller’s world, Snitzel’s post-script now seems a destiny and a Jigsaw the road warrior
Chris Waller moved with two wins of 200 career Group 1 wins with a top-flight double on the final day of the autumn carnival at Randwick, which strengthened Snitzel’s grip on the Australian Sires title while Jigsaw’s extraordinary ride continued in Perth.
Waller’s world
Chris Waller won 10 Group 1 races over the Sydney carnival, including one on each of the past six Saturdays, capping it all off with a Group 1 double on the finale, thanks to Fireball in the Champagne and Beiwacht in the All Aged.
He now has 198 Group 1 wins where he will become the third of an immortal trio of Australian racing. The only other two to have surpassed the 200 Group 1 mark are Bart Cummings and Tommy Smith, whoa re both on 246.
Waller now has 18 Group 1 wins this season, within one of his career peak of 19 set last year. Of those wins, 14 of them have come in Sydney, capped by a magical autumn with victories from the two above plus Ohope Wins, Joliestar (2), Aeliana (2), Autumn Glow (3) Campione D’Italia and Lazzura.
Such was his dominance on Saturday that he had the first three home in the Champagne – the first time that has happened in at least 40 years – and the first two home in the All Aged.
It has been 11 years since a trainer won the All Aged and the Champagne Stakes on the same day. That was Peter Moody.
Snitzel’s vice-like grip as he heads for number four
Fireball’s victory in the Champagne Stakes will add considerable value to any stallion negotiations that managing owner James Harron will undertake in the coming weeks.
But it also added further to the lead of his sire Snitzel as he chases his fifth Australian Sires championship, 12 months after his death. Fireball is his sixth individual Group 1 winner this season and 28th overall, and his seasonal progeny earnings have now surpassed $20 million.
That’s nearly $4 million more than his nearest rival. The Autumn Sun, and it would seem the General Sires title is at his mercy.
Snitzel had three stakes winners at Randwick on Saturday, with Snitzel Dancer becoming number 171 with victory in the G3 James HB Carr Stakes, while Matias won the G3 Frank Packer Plate.
His 13 stakes winners for the season is five more than the next best stallion (both Zoustar, I Am Invincible and his own son Trapeze Artist).
The Beiwacht dilemma
Beiwacht became the first three-year-old colt to win the All Aged Stakes since Trapeze Artist in 2018 (Giga Kick was a gelding when he won in 2023), and he shares a similar profile with the Widden-based stallion as both won the Golden Rose and this race.
Trapeze Artist, who also won the TJ Smith, would go on to race for another season, lured by The Everest, and would add the Canterbury Stakes to his resume before heading to stud.
The question for Darley is do they do the same and allow Beiwacht to race on as a four-year-old, or do they look to kick start a stud career off the back of a win over the older horses.
Beiwacht’s own sire Bivouac also raced on at four and added a Newmarket Handicap. Like his son, he had another Group 1 Godolphin winning sprinter in his crop, Microphone, who entered stud after his Classic season, giving the Darley marketing team two sons of Exceed And Excel a year apart.
In Beiwacht’s case, he has Tentyris, whose future plans have not yet been revealed after he battled on the heavy track in the TJ Smith. Do Godolphin press on with both, as well as the best sprinting filly in the land Tempted, who looks a lock to be first choice for The Everest, a race she was second in last year?
Jigsaw – the road warrior
Across a seven-race winning streak, Jigsaw has taken the trip from Mornington to Cranbourne (twice), to Moonee Valley, to Ellerslie, to Caulfield (twice) and now Ascot for The Quokka.
That is 11,000km in travel across just over six months.
There may have been horses who have travelled more across a similar period, but it is doubtful they have put together seven straight wins and earned over $3.8 million in prize money.
It really is a remarkable story that a seven-year-old can have had such a streak, breaking his Group 1 duck in New Zealand, adding another Group 1 at home (at Caulfield) and then dominating Western Australia’s richest race with an authoritative all the way win in The Quokka.
While Waller will rightly dominate the headlines, Cindy Alderson’s efforts with Jigsaw are truly remarkable and deserve recognition. Jockey Logan Bates has played a huge role as well.
He has now earned close to $5 million in a career which began way back in 2021. The first five horses home when he ran eighth in the Blue Diamond that year are all safely ensconced at stud.
Mazu‘s three-peat
Mazu is a contemporary of Jigsaw’s – they even met once when second and third in the 2024 Moreton Cup – and marked his own longevity with a third straight win in the Hall Mark Stakes on Saturday.
Like Jigsaw, he loves to make the pace, and on Saturday the seven-year-old led home a trifecta for Joseph Pride, with King’s Secret and Private Eye filling the placings. He now has eight stakes wins across a 46-start career which has seen him earn nearly $11 million.
Pride’s description of the Maurice gelding afterwards was far from glowing in terms of character traits, but full of admiration when it comes to his determination.
“He’s grumpy. He’s not the kind of guy you want to hang out with on a long-term sort of basis, but it’s all on his terms and we let him do that. He does everything as he wants, we don’t tell him what he has to do. He’s enjoying his racing and hopefully there’s another season or two left in him,” he said.
“What a fantastic old warrior he is. We’ve won three of these in-a-row and done it on a dry track today.”
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