Waller back at foot of the mountain Going places: Champagne Cath powers to victory at her first race start. The filly returns to action for trainer Chris Waller at Rosehill on Saturday. Photo: Jenny Evans Chris Waller is well aware of the standards he has set since arriving in Sydney and the job of maintaining them starts again on Saturday. Waller's power comes from numbers but his ability extends to all levels of racing - his nine group 1 victories led all trainers last season and sits alongside his Sydney trainers' premiership with 167½ wins. "We have set our standards, now we just have to maintain them and we are continually fine-tuning," Waller said. You can't expect that to happen again ... you have to work at it. The first Saturday of the new season looms and Waller has Champagne Cath and interesting import Bayrir beginning their spring campaigns. Champagne Cath scored a stunning win at her only start in December last year, but injury robbed her of a Magic Millions start and Golden Slipper preparation. The long wait is over on Saturday as she returns in a competitive 1100-metre dash for three-year-olds and Waller will let her show if she is up to a big spring preparation. "She's come back in good shape and I haven't let her head go yet," Waller said. She has had two quiet [barrier] trials and has got herself pretty forward. Saturday will tell all of us where she is at for this preparation. I would like to get her through to a race like the Silver Shadow [Stakes] but after that I'm not concerned about other targets. I think she is probably an autumn filly but Saturday and her next run will tell us if she is ready to go through a full preparation [and the Golden Rose]. Bayrir, formerly owned by the Aga Khan, hasn't started since the Hong Kong Vase last December and has been given time to find his feet. The five-year-old has won in France and the US and his past two starts were in the Arc De Triomphe and the Hong Kong race. "He is a nice horse that is well travelled and has been in some really good races," Waller said. We are learning about him. It would nice to see him there at the end of spring, so he is not wound up [yet]. We are going to be placing him quietly over the next couple of runs. Waller's experience with top-line imports dictates that he will not hurry Bayrir because he believes the talent is there. "They are all so different, some get to group 1s in their first prep and others take time," he said. It would be nice to think he could be a Beaten Up or My Kingdom Of Fife and get there in his first preparation, but if he is like Foreteller and takes time, I won't be complaining. Once they have been racing at that [group 1] level, they've got it. It is just my job to get them to acclimatise and get back to it. Bayrir is topweight for the Winter Challenge on Saturday but Waller also has Coup Ay Tee and Wazn in the listed race. He was happy with Wazn's return a fortnight ago. "Hopefully he still has some speed because he is more of a distance horse now," Waller said of the gelding. He ran a cheeky race first-up and we are hoping he can do that again now he is a lot fitter. He had had a long break and the old Wazn could give a race like this a shake, but the staying Wazn might need an extra 200 metres and an extra run.