Star Thoroughbreds and champion trainer Chris Waller combined to win the open juvenile event at Randwick on Saturday with talented I Am Invincible filly Luiza, a $150,000 Inglis Classic purchase from the Yarraman Park draft. An easy trial winner at Rosehill on September 26, Luiza was too fast and too professional from gate one, jumping straight to the lead for Glyn Scholfield and bolting away to win the 1000 metre scamper by three-quarters of a length. Luiza stopped the clock at 56.75, 0.83 seconds outside of the track record, but the filly may not even taken her place in the race were it not for extended nominations. “Her trackwork on Tuesday was super. Thank god for the extended nominations otherwise she wouldn’t have been in it,” Waller’s stable representative Charlie Duckworth said. “It’s obviously very exciting and she did it exceptionally well. “We haven’t done anything massively different with her, she’s just been a complete natural from the get go so there’s no reason why we can’t keep going forward with her.” Duckworth said he was unsure as to whether Luiza would be seen again this year but acknowledged that the Golden Slipper has emerged as a realistic long term target. “Well I think before the run we would have said we’ll see how she comes through but the way she won you’d certainly be dreaming of Slippers anyway,” Duckworth said. Jockey Glyn Schofield believes the filly has much to learn despite the professional manner of her win. “From the saddle she feels like she’s still got a lot to learn,” Schofield said. “She has a good look, a think about things and doesn’t just run through the bridle like a precocious two-year-old should but she is precocious. “There’s a lot to like about her speed and a lot to like about the fact she’s got more to come.” Luiza is a half-sister to stakes-winning juvenile Moshki and is the fifth winner from unraced Zeditave mare Zedski. I Am Invincible went close to Group I success on Saturday with his talented daughter I Am a Star finishing a game second in the Group I MRC Thousand Guineas behind Global Glamour with Hinchinbrook filly Whispering Brook in third place.
