“She was outstanding”: The horse to watch out of last week's Rosehill trials

Form analyst Dean Watling had his eyes locked on Rosehill’s trials last Thursday and one horse caught his attention.

That horse was Joliestar.

The Chris Waller-trained mare is returning after a seventh-place finish in the 2024 edition of the Golden Eagle where, after a less than ideal run in-transit sitting three-wide the whole trip, she made solid ground late and was more than impressive.

Returning to the track for the first time since November 2, Watling couldn’t ignore the four-year-old Group 1 winner.

“The star of the show was Joliestar,” he told Gareth Hall on SENTrack’s Giddy Up.

“Obviously (James McDonald) wasn’t riding at this trial meeting so we saw Kerrin McEvoy in the saddle. He’s probably been teased with this sort of trial; I’m not sure he’ll be on first-up, I’m guessing James will.

“She looked as good, if not, better than I’ve ever seen her… (and) we know she’s a dynamite fresh 1200m horse so, as a punter, we try to look at this trial and figure out when we’re going to back her and, for me, it’s first-up at 1200m.”

With an Autumn prep in store, Watling pondered where Waller would take the horse with no clear final in mind thus far.

“There’s no Everest carrot to be dangled this preparation so I’m not sure what Chris (Waller) does… but I’m looking at betting wherever she goes which I think we’ll figure out in the next couple of weeks. (She) was outstanding,” he said.

Outside of Joliestar, Watling thought one Godolphin-trained colt is also in for a huge performance first-up.

“(Traffic Warden) looked great,” Watling said.

“He’s a horse who we know has had a couple of issues being a bleeder… when we do have those horses, they’ve got to be rock-hard fit when they get to race day.

“Thinking punting terms, I think the time to chime in to get this horse in the winners circle… is Traffic Warden first-up.”

If Joliestar was to kick-off her campaign in a 1200m race as Watling suggests, a couple of options are the Newmarket Handicap (March 8) where she is currently $15 with Sportsbet or the William Reid Stakes (March 22) at the same quote.

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