Chris Waller’s vision to utilise Macedon Lodge as a training facility for a selection of his stayers continues to reap rewards with Tancred Stakes contender More Felons the latest benefactor.
Waller acquired boxes at the Victorian property last year and has been using the former base of leviathan owner Lloyd Williams as a satellite operation.
Melbourne Cup runner-up Soulcombe was largely prepared from Macedon Lodge last spring and while Waller admitted it was still trial and error, he was finding the expansive facility invaluable for many of his staying horses.
Among them More Felons, a first-up winner of the Parramatta Cup (1900m) in February who has been a regular at Macedon Lodge this autumn.
The facility has helped Waller keep the five-year-old’s fitness up to scratch despite a five-week break between runs leading into Saturday’s Group 1 Tancred Stakes (2400m) at Rosehill.
“He was prepared out of Macedon for his first-up win and he went back there after it, so he has done plenty of endurance work,” Waller said.
“It’s a completely different type of training, I didn’t know how different it was going to be.
“It has been an amazing learning curve. It suits some horses more than others but certainly stamina is the key.”
Barn mate Buckaroo is also on schedule to contest the Tancred Stakes after recovering well from his third to Via Sistina in the Ranvet Stakes (2000m) last Saturday.
Given the slowly run nature of the race, Waller said Buckaroo had a relatively easy time and was happy with the import’s effort to get closest at the finish.
“We will wait until Saturday morning but at this stage he will run,” Waller said.
“It was a really good run the other day and it wasn’t a gut-busting run because they didn’t go that quick and zipped home.
“He sprinted home well, and he seems to have bounced out of it.”
Waller will be chasing his third win in the Tancred Stakes after claimed the feature with Preferment in 2016 and Verry Elleegant in 2020.
His biggest stumbling block is shaping to be the William Haggas-trained Post Impressionist, a brilliant winner of the N E Manion Cup last Saturday who connections are keen to back-up in the Group 1.
