Waller urges cautious approach for Alward

Chris Waller will urge the connections of Alward not to back up the gelding in The Metropolitan following his latest win at Rosehill.

A one-time favourite for the Group One staying feature at Randwick after he scored on his Sydney debut last month, Waller is adamant Alward ($4) should not contest the Group One Metropolitan at Randwick next week.

Sydney’s premier trainer placed his other runners in the Ranvet Handicap (2000m) in the same bracket after $1.85 favourite Up ‘N’ Rolling trailed his stablemate by three-quarters of a length.

Quick Defence ($10) crossed the line in fourth, behind the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Zaunkonig ($26), who was a neck off Up ‘N’ Rolling.

“If you run them in the Metrop you won’t see them again for the rest of the spring,” Waller said, when asked if his trio could back-up.

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“I’d rather take them through the grades. Sure owners want to have runners in Metropolitans, but they want to have runners run the rest of the carnival as well.

“There’s some nice races through the spring. It’s now a five or six race carnival,” he said.

Waller confirmed he would have four runners in The Metropolitan – Antonio Giuseppe, Libran, Life Less Ordinary and Who Shot Thebarman.

Libran and Life Less ordinary were the joint $6 favourites on the TAB fixed odds market, on Saturday.

Antonio Giuseppe is on the second line of betting with the Darren Weir-trained Big Duke ($8) while Who Shot Thebarman is rated a $15 chance.