The Rosehill meeting was pushed back 7 days after torrential rain has battered parts of Sydney including the western suburbs racecourse.
As a result the Waller team have decided to add Nature Stip to the delayed Group 1 Galaxy over 1100m. The 5 time Group 1 winner was not listed in the initial field but was added to nominations on Monday after all races bar The Slipper were opened up for stables to nominate.
The opportunity presents itself for Waller with all races in the Autumn Racing Carnival being pushed back a week and allows the son of Nicconi to have one more tune up race before his cup final in the TJ Smith at Randwick.
Nature Strip has got back to somewhere near his dominant best in recent weeks winning the Group 1 Black Caviar Stakes under Jamie Kah at Flemington before finishing second behind Eduardo in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes at Randwick.
The inclusion of Nature Strip will almost definitely impact the weightings for the race with Eduardo the top weight at 58kgs in the original nominations. The Waller runner is likely to receive 59kg or higher which is likely to impact the rest of the field.
In 2018 the Galaxy was run on a Heavy 8 track at Rosehill Gardens and was Nature Strip’s first success at Group 1 level. With conditions likely to be the same it will be interesting to see if the 6 year old Gelding can replicate that success in the slop.
Betting for Saturday gone had Godolphin trained Tallieur as the favourite for the race and holds and impressive 4:3-1-0 record on the heavy however the introduction of Nature Strip is likely to shift the James Cummings runner from the $4.50 market price.