3 minute read

Hinged prepares to step out of stablemates’ shadows.

She has been a quiet achiever of the Chris Waller stable but Hinged can put her name up in lights if she can emulate former champion stablemate Winx by winning the prestigious Epsom Handicap. 

Hinged has come through the ranks alongside high-profile barn mates Fangirl and Espiona and despite capturing the Group 1 Surround Stakes in the autumn, she has often played a supporting role. 

However, with just 51.5kg on Saturday, good wet track form and off a classy last-start third to Anamoe in the George Main Stakes, Hinged ($6) is regarded as Waller's top seed, ahead of Fangirl ($9) and Kiku ($34). 

The champion trainer, who has won the Epsom four times, believes Hinged has all the ingredients to add to his tally. 

"She has won her own Group 1, she has been placed in the Flight Stakes as an early three-year-old, she has been placed in a Coolmore against the older mares and she was placed the other day in a weight-for-age," Waller said. 

"She's got the right credentials to be winning an Epsom. 

"Hinged gets a pull in the weights, she gets 2-1/2 kilos off Fangirl for beating her last start, so she is all of a sudden the talk horse and she looks well suited." 

While Hinged will be advantaged at the handicaps, Fangirl is an undoubted talent at her best. 

She produced one of the runs of the race when rocketing home for second to Anamoe in the Winx Stakes (1400m) first-up before finishing fifth to the same horse in the George Main Stakes (1600m). 

Waller expected more from Fangirl last start but said he had not lost faith in the mare, confident she could rebound. 

"I was (disappointed) but not disheartened completely," Waller said. 

"Maybe we are riding her too close, maybe she needs a better track, which wouldn't surprise me, either of those two. 

"She can definitely bounce back, she is working well." 

Kiku earned her Epsom shot with a strong victory in the Theo Marks Stakes and like Hinged, she is proven in rain-affected ground. 

Randwick was rated a soft 7 on Wednesday with rain and storms forecast for the end of the week.