Chris Waller‘s flawless mare Via Sistina won like the odds-on champion she is extending her incredible string of turf triumphs for the spring when backing-up from a historical Cox Plate performance to easily account for her rivals in the 2024 Champions Stakes at Flemington.

Handing hoop of the hour James McDonald his 10th win for Melbourne Cup week, the seven-year-old daughter of Fastnet Rock made a mess of a gun field in Saturday’s Group 1 $3 million VRC Champions Stakes (2000m) in the final Group 1 of the year in Melbourne.

After setting a new Cox Plate record with her eight-length demolition job at The Valley on October 26 she returned to headquarters where she won the Turnbull Stakes earlier this prep over the mile and got everything her way to become a six-time Group 1 champion.

“It was very special. Winning the Cox Plate the way she did, I think caught everyone by surprise. And then the pressure to back her up and go one more run,” Waller told Channel 9.

“We spoke about sport analogies and having another game after a Grand Final and we were thinking about it constantly.

“But she’s a very, very special horse, obviously. Don’t underestimate how hard these horses work, so we could see that. We just backed off in the last two weeks and gave her a good time, and it worked.

“We’ve got a great team around Australia who just do amazing things with horses that they love.

“Yeah, she captured the imagination with the Tuesday morning workout (at The Valley before the Cox Plate), backed up with an impressive track record winning run in the Cox Plate.

“And then there was the temptation to run in a Melbourne Cup, but I think the Melbourne Cup is a good enough story without us!”

McDonald timed his run on the short-priced favourite to perfection allowing her to settle fifth last in the run as Deny Knowledge went to the front and led them around.

Via still spotted them five lengths at the top of the straight but when McDonald went for her 200m out she answered in style, moving up to run past the leaders and storm home by a big margin.

Chasing her to the line in another brave performance was her stablemate Atishu on the quick back-up from an Empire Rose Stakes win last weekend with last year’s winner running a distant second.

“Atishu, she was brave,” Waller said.

“She won the race last year and I feel for her, but she got a Group 1 last Saturday.

“They can chat tonight, they’re actually right next to each other in their stables.”

Third completing the VRC Champions Stakes trifecta in a lovely return was the Anthony & Sam Freedman-trained Without A Fight having his first start since completing the Caulfield Cup – Melbourne Cup double last year.

“He went super,” jockey Mark Zahra said of Without A Fight.

“Couldn’t be happier with a return like that.

“Followed Via Sistina, was a good solid run race but I was able to quick up behind her for most of the straight and then she left him late.

“He’ll benefit from that, and I think he’ll be very hard to beat in Hong Kong in that race.”

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