Maturity helping put Tangled back on track
WHILE most of his trainer’s attention will be on a 2000m race at Flemington, Tangled gets the chance to show what he can do at Randwick.
Chris Waller will be overseeing Winx’s bid for a 14th Group 1 win in the Turnbull Stakes on Saturday while Tangled will be aiming for his first in the Spring Champion Stakes.
Waller believes the colt is making his way back to winning form after a slump at the end of his two-year-old season.
Tangled made an excellent start to his previous preparation by ticking off his maiden and then winning the Group 2 Champagne Classic (1200m) at Doomben in May.
His performances subsequently tailed off in Queensland when he was unplaced in the Group 2 Sires Produce Stakes on a heavy track at Eagle Farm and was again well back in the Group 1 J.J. Atkins at Doomben.
He returned from a spell in the Group 2 Run To The Rose on September 9 and faded from fourth to finish more than eight lengths adrift of winner Menari.
Despite that sequence of results, Waller was optimistic following Tangled’s luckless fourth as the topweight in last Saturday’s Listed Dulcify Quality (1600m) at Randwick.
“He wasn’t suited by the weights and he had a chequered path in the straight,” Waller said.
Stepping Tangled to 2000m on a seven-day back-up does not concern Sydney’s premier trainer.
“That race hasn’t taken anything out of him,” Waller said.
“If anything it’s helped him. He looks good, he’s a good strong colt,” he said.
Waller said he never lost faith in the three-year-old after his failure to build on his Champagne Classic victory.
“What he did as a two-yearold was pretty special in terms of he wasn’t quite ready for it,” he said.
“He was an immature horse. He’s a more mature horse now. His run on Saturday was the run of a winner.”
Tangled was on the third line of betting with as a $5.50 chance behind the David Payne-trained Gloaming Stakes winner Ace High ($3.40) and runner-up Sanctioned ($4.20).
Three of the past five winners of the Gloaming (1800m) have gone on to win the Spring Champion Stakes including the Waller-trained Vanbrugh.
Waller also expects improvement from Dawn Wall in the Group 3 Angst Stakes (1600m) after the mare’s fifth in the Group 2 Shannon Stakes on September 23.