Racing: Walter enjoys top day with big double

Photo / ThinkStock

A resurgent Guy Walter had one of his greatest days at the track on Saturday with 3-year-olds Streama and Doctor Doom claiming group ones on Sydney's biggest spring race day.

Walter has had a lean period in the past five years after a golden run in the late 1990s and first half of the 2000s.

But the deeds of Streama and Doctor Doom announced that Walter is back in a big way.

Doctor Doom's all-the-way victory in the Spring Champion Stakes on Saturday marked Walter's first group one success since Excites won the Sires' Produce Stakes in the autumn of 2006.

Little more than an hour after Doctor Doom's triumph, outstanding filly Streama asserted her dominance with a breathtaking performance to space her rivals by 6 lengths in the Flight Stakes.

"It's been a great day," Walter said.

"I think I have won 29 group one races now and today ranks as a really great day for me."

In recent times the Warwick Farm-based Walter has been rebuilding his team and has opened a satellite stable at Goulburn, south of Sydney.

It was at that track, just under a month ago, that Doctor Doom won a class two in a confidence-boosting victory ahead of the spring 3-year-old classics.

It says much about Walter's view to the future that he will resist the temptation to send Streama and Doctor Doom south to Melbourne.

Doctor Doom will be aimed at next year's Randwick and Rosehill Guineas, while Walter said Streama had the potential to return and become an even bigger star.

A delayed flight caused Craig Newitt to miss his Epsom Handicap ride but the top Victorian jockey still made his trip count with a group one victory aboard The Verminator in the Metropolitan at Randwick.

Mechanical problems with Newitt's plane meant his flight was delayed and he didn't get to Randwick in time for the Epsom, with apprentice Blake Spriggs his replacement aboard the unplaced Light Brigade.

Newitt jumped aboard Tai Tai Tess a race later, finishing sixth to runaway Flight Stakes winner Streama, but The Verminator made his whirlwind trip worthwhile.

One of five Metropolitan (2400m) runners for Chris Waller on Saturday, The Verminator ($21) raced handy throughout and exploded away in the straight to hold stablemate Hawk Island ($14) at bay by 2 lengths with Lamasery ($5.50) another head back.

It was a roller-coaster race for Waller with one of his quintet, Bellagio Wynn, losing rider Jay Ford about 800m out although horse and jockey escaped serious injury.

The Verminator had finished fifth in the Newcastle Cup at his previous run but Waller said he was not suited by the firm track that day and appreciated the sting out of the ground at Randwick.

"I could have easily pulled the pin after Newcastle but I was adamant it was just the track up there," Waller said.

"Had he won that he would have probably started favourite here so we thought, 'We have to keep going,' and fortunately we did."

Both The Verminator and Hawk Island will press on to Melbourne and the Caulfield Cup (2400m) in two weeks.

- AAP