Chris Waller made his reputation with 'project horses' and he takes one to Sandown on Saturday that looks to be coming good.
That project horse come good is the well named Good Project who has made steady progress with his racing under Waller.
Campaign to campaign peak Timeform Ratings show his constant improvement. Over his two-year-old season he went from a rating of 72 to 89 before returning as a spring three-year-old and improving again.
Like so many of the project horses in the Waller stable he was not necessarily winning but he was consistent and steadily trending upwards. From the spring to the summer of his three-year-old season he ran five placings in a row in handicaps which would have plenty thinking that he was stuck at that level, but he improved his Timeform rating from 89 to 99 in that period and was rewarded with a win at Randwick before a break.
He was given a short preparation at the back of the season, trying his hand in higher grade up in Brisbane where again he ran credibly and then returned for his four-year-old year with an ominous win at Rosehill. A new peak first up from a break suggested that he had continued to improve and was back a better horse - subsequent results have confirmed as much.
Good Project has improved with each of four runs since that return win and his effort at Flemington last time saw him up to a mark of 108 with Timeform. His spiral continues to trend the right way, and that upwards-trending arrow is now aimed at what would be a maiden stakes success at Sandown.
He rates on top in the Sandown Stakes and Chris Waller's project looks to be coming to fruition, like so many of them seem to do.
He races against a better grade of horse at Sandown but his ratings stack up and it's not just a one-off rating, it's a body of work, backed up by strong collateral form (winners just keep pouring out of the races he has been contesting) and strong performances against the clock as well.
Strictly on the form book he looks a very likely winner at Sandown, with the lone query being a potentially awkward draw. Any concerns there are eased by the booking of James McDonald, a jockey who rides well for Waller (he rides well in general) and was aboard Good Project when he beat four subsequent winners in good figures first up at Rosehill.
Speed maps are handy but top jockeys are priceless - over to you James.
For an each-way play we push on to the Eclipse where the Flemington race won by Awesome Rock looks the key formline.
Malice and Scream Machine will be hard to beat off good runs there but at bigger odds Jacquinot Bay looks to have been discarded a little too quickly.
He finished fourth, beaten just four lengths, but the race hardly suited - dawdling through the middle stages of the race before being beaten in a sprint for home.
He's a better horse when allowed to roll and that should hopefully be the case today. If it is, $13 doesn't do his chances justice.
THE MELBOURNE MAIL
Bet Of The Day: Race 4 #8 Good Project @ $2.90
Each Way Play: Race 6 #3 Jacquinot Bay @ $13.00
