Twelve months ago, the Chris Waller-trained gelding Le Juge (IRE) was one of the stars of the Brisbane Winer Carnival, winning four consecutive races culminating in the Group III Chairman’s Quality, but it had been lean pickings before he defended his title at Doomben on Saturday.
Sporting the silks of OTI Racing, the 7yo gelded son of Dansili broke a 16-run of outs aided by a peach of a ride by Michael Cahill to lead home a 1-2-3-4-5-6 finish for champion trainer Chris Waller.
Savacool (Savabeel) charged home to fall one and a quarter lengths length short with Another Dollar (Ocean Park) a short-half-head back in third.
Le Juge (IRE) advances his record to 10 wins, 3 seconds and 8 thirds from 50 starts with earnings of $590,549.
"He's a funny horse to ride he keeps you on your toes, we were lucky there was a strong tempo because he wanted to pull a bit in the run but finally settled," Cahill said.
"From there everything really went our way I was able to get him off the fence a the right time and he strode up really boldly in the straight and smashed the line."
"Paul (Shailer) was very keen on his chances with the weight drop and good draw and I'm glad I was able to do the rest."
Stable rep Paul Shailer said the drop in weight was the deciding factor.
"This horse this time last year won seven of nine, he’s been a while out of the winners circle when he was racing in Group One's in Sydney, but back in Queensland drop in weight and a nice barrier he did the job beautifully," he said.
"I think we had the first four of five in the race Bringham Rocks, Alward were really good runs on top of the first three, I was trying to watch them all at once which was a bit of a challenge."
"Of all the runners we thought Le Juge was the most likely, his work at home has been brilliant he loves this time of year in Queensland everything seemed to fall in place in the run too."
"Chris (Waller) has always been a big supporter of Michael (Cahill) and you can tell why when he rides them like that, always good to have him on."
A half-brother to the Listed winner Frankel Light (Frankel), Le Juge (IRE) is one of five winners out of the Kingmambo mare Mambo Light who was a Listed stakes-winner and multiple Group III placed in Germany and is a half-sister to dual Group II winner Dietrich (Storm cat) the dam of the Group III winner Beauty Bright.
This is the prolific stakes-winning family of Spinning World (USA), Chimes Of Freedom, Denon (USA), Good journey (USA) and Aldebaran.
