Premiership winning trainer Chris Waller has seen his day go from bad to worse on Wednesday as Run to the Rose hopeful Zousain drew barrier 8 ahead of Saturday’s $200,000 Group 2 race at Rosehill Gardens.

Favoured alongside Kris Lees trained Graff following early nominations, Zousain has opened as the $4.20 second-elect with Ladbrokes ahead of his first-up attempt at 1200m.

The Kris Lees trained colt Graff is the early favourite for the Run To The Rose at Rosehill on Saturday at $2.60.

Zousain is on the next line of betting at $4.20.

— Ladbrokes.com.au (@ladbrokescomau) September 5, 2018

On the back of a trial win which involved Chautauqua and The Autumn Sun on August 25, Waller’s three-year old has figured as a horse to watch this Spring as he attempts to replicate May’s winning form.

Having succeeded at the Group 2 level, Zousain’s ultimate goal will be a second crack at Group 1 glory following a second-placing in the $600,000 J.J. Atkins Stakes (1600m) at Doomben earlier in June.

With no prior record on the heavy track, Zousain’s run in Brisbane left a lasting memory in punter’s minds as they look toward Melbourne in the coming months.

Jumping from an even wider draw (barrier 14), Zousain sat three-wide for most of the race well off the speed. Storming home from seventh at the final turn to finish runner-up behind The Autumn Sun, Waller missed out on the first place prize by only a head.

Jockey James McDonald did a great job of placing the three-year old in a winning position at Doomben, and he’ll receive the ride again this Saturday.

With Zousain nominated for the $5 million Cox Plate later in October, a race that is likely to be dominated by Winx, the two will hope to build on their success.

Rain is forecast in Melbourne for Thursday, as well as showers on Saturday, so there’s every chance we could be looking at a soft track on race day.

Unfortunately for the Waller stable, that only further favours Graff at short $2.60 odds following his win on the soft in the $150,000 San Domenico Stakes a fortnight ago.

2018 The Run to the Rose Field

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Penalty	Hcp Rating
1	146122x	ZOUSAIN	Chris Waller	James McDonald	8	57.5kg	–	90
2	13310x	LEAN MEAN MACHINE	Chris Waller	Tye Angland	7	57.5kg	–	88
3	11×1	GRAFF	Kris Lees	Jason Collett	13	57kg	–	85
4	1x1L0x3	PERFORMER	Chris Waller	Hugh Bowman	1	57kg	–	83
5	323x81x8	PAQUIRRI	Gary Moore	Christian Reith	3	57kg	–	81
6	2×221	DANAWI	Tim Martin	–	11	57kg	–	75
7	11628×1	SANDBAR	Brad Widdup	–	10	56kg	–	85
8	11x10649x2	LONG LEAF	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Tommy Berry	9	56kg	–	82
9	110×4	JONKER	David Atkins	Kerrin McEvoy	4	56kg	–	78
10	1x4342x8	LEGEND OF CONDOR	Gerald Ryan	Brett Prebble	12	55kg	–	80
11	5310×5	TCHAIKOVSKY	Peter & Paul Snowden	–	5	55kg	–	71
12	113	SMART ELISSIM	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	–	2	55kg	–	70
13	47×14	NUCLEAR BLITZ	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	–	6	53kg	–	62