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Come Play With Me completed an unprecedented Group 1 clean sweep for champion trainer Chris Waller at Royal Randwick.
Waller trained all three major race winners with Come Play With Me taking out the $750,000 The Metropolitan (2400m) to complement the wins of stablemates Kolding in the Epsom Handicap and Funstar’s Flight Stakes.
The Hall of Famer also prepared the Turnbull Stakes quinella at Flemington with Kings Will Dream and Finche to become the first trainer in Australian racing history to have four Group 1 winners on the same day.
“It’s been a magnificent day,’’ Waller said.
“We have a massive team behind us and they put everything into these horses, whether it be a maiden at Moe, Kembla Grange or wherever it may be.
“But winning four Group 1 races, it is pretty special day.’’
The Metropolitan was a blanket finish with less than two lengths separating first to eighth with former Perth stayer Come Play With Me ($8.50) getting up to score by a head from Gallic Chieftain ($18) with Sir Charles Road ($31) a long neck away third.
Jockey Brenton Avdulla completed a set of big race winners of his own on Come Play With Me.
“This day has always been a big day for me, I’ve won all three Group 1s now, the Flight, the Epsom and now the Metropolitan,’’ Avdulla said.
“I thought this was the horse I wanted to ride with the weights, I was very lucky to have Chris (Waller) put me on him.
“But things didn’t go right early, he jumped and was a pair further back than I wanted to be and I knew I couldn’t go around them to win it, so I just had to ride through them.
“He was there to win the race half way up the straight and Tommy (Berry, Gallic Chieftain) put a margin on him, but to his credit he kicked back and fought on.” – Ray Thomas, The Daily Telegraph