Minutes after Boban had won the Chipping Norton Stakes, Chris Waller’s fourth in-a-row, fellow jockey Nash Rawiller walked over to the leading trainer and put his hand out to congratulate.
“You’re a genius,” Rawiller said to Waller before walking back to the jockeys room.
Rawiller had been in the saddle for Boban’s first two runs this preparation but watched from the sidelines as Glyn Schofield got the best out of the talented-yet-problematic galloper in the Group 1 weight-for-age contest at Warwick Farm.
It was been well documented that Rawiller and Boban didn’t mix but Schofield certainly has the key to him.
Boban reached $5 in betting before firming back to $4.80 and charged late in the straight to defeat It’s A Dundeel ($1.85) with Hawkspur ($16) running on strongly for third.
“You hear all the critiscm of the horse and you second guess yourself and in those early days it was hard, but now I can back myself and we didn’t change anything with him,” Waller said.
“When Nash said last start he was disappointing I took it personally, then we had a five minute discussion and worked out it wasn’t that bad.
“He (Nash Rawiller) is a great man, he will get on horses that Glyn can’t win with and lift them over the line, it is just magic to have these jockeys at your disposal.”
Waller won the Chipping Norton Stakes with Danleigh in 2011 and Shoot Out in 2012 and 2013.
Schofield, who was out suspended for Boban’s first two runs, was clearly delighted with the performance, taking out the Group 1 feature only minutes after his son Chad won the Newmarket Handicap in Melbourne.
“Chris Waller, don’t forget him, he has got the horse to turn his first two performances around and peak today, he has won this race four times in a row now, it was my turn today,” Schofield said. “He (Boban) went down to the post a lot keener than he has for me before and I knew I just had to be negative from the word go, which is what I did, the speed wasn’t all that quick and the fence just opened up, I thought oh well, I’ll take it and try to get off where I can, James put me tight across heels at one stage, I had to come back and let him go, which I was always going to do anyway, once I peeled off their backs from the top of the straight the old Boban was back and away he went.”
– Racing Network
