Aeliana Claims Ranvet Stakes as McDonald Equals Australian Group 1 Record

James McDonald guided Aeliana to a narrow but historic victory in the Group 1 A$1 million Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill Gardens on March 21, the four-year-old mare's short-neck defeat of stablemate Lindermann delivering McDonald his 129th Australian Group 1 win and drawing him level with Hall of Famer Damien Oliver's all-time record.

Sent out as the $1.60 favourite in the opening Group 1 of Golden Slipper Day, Aeliana settled toward the rear of the compact five-horse field while Nash Rawiller rolled Lindermann into a commanding lead. McDonald bided his time before angling the Castelvecchio mare wide at the top of the straight, and she ranged up beside Lindermann inside the final furlong before lifting under McDonald's drive to get the verdict. Sir Delius, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and ridden by C. Williams at $3, crossed a length back in third, with Trinity College fourth. The official time was 2:02.85, with the last 600 metres run in 35.30.

"She's just incredible," McDonald said after dismounting. "Her tenacity to find the line was just superb. She's been building to something like that and I've got to give credit to the second horse because they made us work. I was thinking, this is not how the script's supposed to go."

The script nearly was rewritten. Rawiller's front-running tactics on the $16 chance Lindermann kept McDonald under pressure deep into the straight, and McDonald reserved particular praise for his rival rider: "Nash is a genius when it comes to race tempo. He got things on his own terms, and Damian Lane was just sitting off him the whole way. It wasn't ideal, that's for sure, because he had a picnic up in front. But I was on a good horse and she deservedly won that one."

Trainer Chris Waller, who saddled both the winner and runner-up, acknowledged the degree of difficulty. "She was made to fight for it. He's a good horse on his day and I think Nash controlled the race really well. She had to be good to win and obviously Sir Delius on our back, that gave me a bit of a scare when he came with us."

The Ranvet win was Aeliana's first turf success since she demolished the boys by five lengths in the 2025 ATC Derby. She had been winless this preparation, runner-up to undefeated stablemate Autumn Glow in two lead-ups, but arrived at Rosehill fit and third-up. The victory also extended the Waller stable's dominance of the race, with Aeliana becoming the third consecutive Waller-trained mare to claim the Ranvet following Via Sistina's back-to-back wins in 2024 and 2025. Aeliana is owned by Star Thoroughbreds of Denise Martin.

McDonald's 129th Group 1 was also the 54th for the Waller-McDonald partnership, equalling the celebrated combination of trainer TJ Smith and jockey George Moore. That milestone proved short-lived: according to RacingZone, just 35 minutes after Aeliana's victory, McDonald and Waller surpassed both tallies outright when McDonald rode Autumn Boy to win the Group 1 $750,000 Rosehill Guineas over the same 2000 metres. Waller, reflecting on the partnership that began with Delectation's Group 1 win in 2015, kept the achievement in characteristic perspective: "I'm just lucky to train lots of good horses and have an association with a terrific young man.