Trainer saddles eight of nine runners – but still loses

– When Chris Waller, one of Australia's leading trainers, saddled eight runners in a ninerunner race at Randwick he must have been pretty confident one of them would win.

However, the Cindy Sullivan Memorial Stakes turned out to be the scene of an underdog upset as the Brent Stanley-trained 8-1 shot Red Alto took on the Waller octet – and saw them off in a narrow and surprising victory.

Waller is one of Australia's top trainers, most famous for his handling of world-class mare Winx, who has wrapped up 18 consecutive Group 1 victories.

Stanley, who had a careerhighlight treble across two tracks on Saturday's card, told racing. com: "(A win like this) lets everyone know you can train, take on the best trainers and beat them."

"He's a dominant, great trainer but (he's racing) horses of that rating and the race suited my horse down to the ground.

When the first entries were revealed, Waller was responsible for 13 of the 14 entries with Red Alto a late addition to the contest in New South Wales.

The trainer added: "I missed the entries but I knew it was the right race for him, so I'm glad I paid up for him to go up there."

"It's a great feeling when you send a horse away and it wins. It's even better when you can beat the odds and do it."

Waller tweeted a picture of his eight grooms lined up and commented: “We definitely didn’t win the race but I was very proud of my staff presenting eight horses in fantastic order today!” – racingpost.com