Epsom Handicap Results 2023: Rediener Beats Kovalica in Waller Quinella

Sydney’s premiere horseman Chris Waller stole the show at Royal Randwick in Saturday’s marquee race running the 2023 Epsom Handicap quinella with his fast-finishing duo of Rediener and Kovalica.

2023 Epsom Handicap winner Rediener lunged late to enjoy a Group 1 win in the mile classic at Randwick. Photo: Steve Hart.

Jockey Kathy O’Hara celebrated her third career Group 1 in the saddle while Waller took his imposing record at elite level up to 152 with the narrow photo-finish win by four-year-old Rediener in this year’s Group 1 $1.5 million Epsom Handicap (1600m).

“Very special for Kathy (O’Hara), Charlie’s (Duckworth) wife. It’s great, Kathy is just an amazing toiler. Sydney racing 52 weeks a year she just gives it her best, amazing horse person. Gives you great feedback, she lives on a horse. Charlie is obviously so close to me,” Waller said after the win.

The wins keep coming for progressive Redoute’s Choice gelding Rediener ($9.50) who won two on the trot before a spell and then saluted fresh in the Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m) on September 16.

“When he won in Queensland we set him for this race, but setting horses for races is not easy,” Waller said.

“But to see him win like he did first-up it gave us a little bit of hope and the barrier draw (gate 2) was obviously a plus.”

He franked that form with another lovely ride by O’Hara sitting up on the pace throughout before a late lunge saw him hold out his Queensland Derby winning stablemate Kovalica ($10) for an all-Waller top two.

Third in the famous Randwick mile classic went to the brave front-running Golden Mile who Blake Shinn had leading from the jump.

Shinn controlled the pace in the lead and tried to steal the show when Golden Mile gave a lovely kick on the home straight to surge ahead of the favourite Nugget.

Nugget was taken up on the outside to challenge a long way from home by Damien Oliver after he found himself caught three-wide and couldn’t slot in.

Golden Mile ($16) however was too strong shrugging him off and nearly taking out the Group 1 before being swamped right on the line by Waller’s two nice horses.

Kovalica was excellent second-up wide out flashing home with improvement to come as the son of Ocean Park steps-up in distance this prep.

2023 Epsom Handicap Results & Finishing Order

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
1	17	REDIENER	Chris Waller	Ms Kathy O’Hara		2	50kg		$9.50
2	10	KOVALICA (NZ)	Chris Waller	Joao Moreira	0.07L	7	54kg		$10
3	6	GOLDEN MILE	James Cummings	Blake Shinn	0.23L	17	55kg		$16
4	18	BARBIE’S FOX	Ben, Will & JD Hayes	Dean Yendall	1.22L	4	50kg		$51
5	16	DEMOCRACY MANIFEST	Chris Waller	Tyler Schiller	1.28L	1	51.5kg	1.5kg	$9
6	8	HOPE IN YOUR HEART	Kerry Parker	Craig Williams	1.92L	10	54kg		$7.50EF
7	1	MY OBERON (IRE)	Annabel Neasham	Chad Schofield	2.01L	15	56kg		$21
8	3	THE INEVITABLE	John Keys	David Pires	2.63L	8	55.5kg		$9
9	21e	WILLIAMSBURG	Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou	Andrew Adkins	3.37L	3	50kg		$31
10	11	NUGGET (GB)	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Damien Oliver	4.03L	16	54kg		$7.50EF
11	12	POUNDING	Peter G Moody & Katherine Coleman	Ms Jamie Kah	4.06L	13	54kg		$10
12	9	DIAMIL (IRE)	John O’Shea	Jason Collett	4.36L	5	54kg		$91
13	5	CONVERGE	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Tim Clark	4.75L	9	55kg		$11
14	7	KIRWAN’S LANE (NZ)	John O’Shea	Tom Sherry	5.83L	11	54.5kg		$51
15	13	COMMUNIST	Michael Freedman	Dylan Gibbons (a)	6.28L	6	53.5kg		$19
16	22e	POLITICAL DEBATE	Chris Waller	Ms Rachel King	6.33L	18	50kg		$201
17	15	MADAME POMMERY	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	7.22L	14	51.5kg		$41
18	4	GOING GLOBAL (IRE)	Chris Waller	James McDonald	7.41L	12	55kg (cd 55.5kg)		$31
	2	PERICLES	James Cummings	Nash Rawiller		0
	14	DUKE DE SESSA (IRE)	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Regan Bayliss		0
	19	WATERFORD (IRE)	Chris Waller	Zac Lloyd (a)		0
	20	OLENTIA	Chris Waller	Jay Ford		0