Chris Waller got off the mark with a couple of group 1s on the weekend, but it will be Catkins who takes centre stage for the premier stable in the Golden Pendant at Rosehill on Saturday.
Catkins has yet to win at the top level but Waller is hoping she can join Sacred Falls, who showed a devastating turn of foot to win the George Main Stakes on Saturday before Foreteller took Waller's group 1 tally to 35 when he won the Underwood Stakes at Caulfield.
It was the third time Waller had trained two group 1 winners on the same day but the first time in separate states. He also added a group 2 with Junoob in the Hill Stakes.
"It was good to get off the [group 1] mark for the season and hopefully a few more will follow," he said. "Sacred Falls and Foreteller are in form and heading towards the Cox Plate at this point."
However, there still remains a group 1 victory Waller would crave, not that he would admit it. That would be for Ingham racing, one of his major backers, which owns Catkins. The Golden Pendant isn't a group 1 but it is part of the spring campaign for the grey mare, whose target is the Myer Classic at Flemington on Derby day.
"She is a very good mare that has been up to that [group 1] level in the past and we are building towards that race with her again," Waller said. "I have learned in racing you can't push things and we let things unfold and hopefully she will get to that level again. We just have stick to our system. The Golden Pendant is another step for her to take along the way."
Catkins was runner-up to stablemate Red Tracer in the Myer last year and was third as favourite in the Coolmore Classic and fourth in the Tattersall's Tiara at the top level. She resumed by making a one-act affair of the Sheraco Stakes, in which she was well in under the set weights and penalties conditions, which she will race under again on Saturday.
"I thought she was good winning first-up and the next step is to go to 1400 metres for her," Waller said. "it is the right program for her."
Waller will have only one group 1 runner on the weekend as Bull Point heads to Melbourne for the Sunday's Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield.
Meanwhile, the premier trainer will only have three babies, all for Star Thoroughbreds, at the official two-year-old barrier trials on Kensington track at Randwick on Monday morning.
Gai Waterhouse has the biggest team at the trials, stepping out 15, while Godolphin's trainer John O'Shea will put 14 youngsters on show.
