Sydney’s star trainer Chris Waller will play a dominant hand in this weekend’s Warwick Stakes 2013 with half the nominations coming from his triple premiership winning stables.

Shoot Out is the best fancied of Chris Waller's nine Warwick Stakes 2013 nominations. Photo: Steve Hart.

A key Sydney and Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival lead-up, the $175,000 Group 2 Warwick Stakes (1400m) has this year drawn a total of 19 nominees.

Nine of those are prepared by Waller including his four-time Group 1 winning seven-year-old Shoot Out who Waller has described as his “benchmark horse” this season.

Other top fancies for Waller include Doomben Cup runner-up Foreteller heading towards the Mackinnon Stakes, 2013 Caulfield Cup hope Hawkspur, Kelinni who Waller hopes to run in the Melbourne Cup again on the first Tuesday of November and his Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Falls.

Rounding out his Warwick Stakes nominations are then last start Doomben Cup champion Beaten Up, veteran Danasinga eight-year-old Metal Bender who hasn’t raced since their George Ryder win in April last year, Brisbane Cup winner Moriarty and his Australian Oaks winning mare Royal Descent.

Of course the master horseman isn’t planning on accepting for all nine with a number of other races on the Warwick Farm program also being considered for some of his contingent.

“I’ll nominate Metal Bender and Kelinni for the Show County as well, just because Metal Bender has been off the scene for a long time,” he told The Daily Telegraph this week.

“Kelinni can have a really good blow-out over 1200m, then step up to the mile a fortnight later.

“I’ll nominate Royal Descent for the Toy Show Quality, but if she was to get something like 60kg, I’d run in the Warwick Stakes.

“Beaten Up is only `50/50′ and could resume in the Memsie Stakes (a Group 1 in Melbourne on August 31), while Sacred Falls could wait another two weeks to resume in the Tramway.

“His main targets are the George Main and Epsom, so there’s no real rush to have him ready.”

Waller also conceded that with his troop being set for later spring features including the $3 million Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) in October and the $6.2 million Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) in November most of them won’t be ready to fire first-up.

“The races we’re aiming at with these horses include the Epsom, Metropolitan, Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, and the Cox Plate,” he said.

“If they can all win a race by the end of their preparation we’ll be happy.”

Outside of the Waller entries the top Warwick Stakes entry for 2013 is the Joe Pride-trained Rain Affair.

The speedy Commands six-year-old resumed at Randwick on August 10 and set themselves up for a crack spring with an emphatic five and a half length Group 3 Missile Stakes (1200m) victory.

Other notable hopes then include the Gai Waterhouse-trained The Metropolitan winner Glencadam Gold, Guy Walter’s smart Group 1 winning mare Streama and the John Thompson-trained Tremec who won the Group 2 Chairman’s Handicap (2600m) at Randwick before the break.

See below for the full Warwick Stakes 2013 nominations and stay tuned to Races.com.au to view the final field when released on Wednesday.

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2013 Warwick Stakes Nominations

Warwick Farm Racecourse – 24/08/2013