How A Doncaster Changed Chris Waller

It is Doncaster night 2008 and Chris Waller is at Phillip Ng’s Fook Yuen restaurant in Sydney’s suburban Chatswood.

Phillip was part owner of a $50,000 horse called Triple Honour who that afternoon gave Chris Waller his first group 1 winner.

OK, there have been another 64 since amongst some 1889 winners at last time of checking and for completeness about $155m in stakes money, but Waller clearly remembers THAT day. And what it meant.

Sure there have been perhaps bigger moments and of course the almost surreal journey above and through the sport with Winx, but this one race and this one day changed it all for Waller.

So he reflects with G1X.com.au on that journey in a week he is lining up to join Tommy (TJ) Smith and Gai Waterhouse as seven time winners of the famous Doncaster Mile.

Such has been Waller’s emergence and growth that he has won six of the last nine and he has four running for him on Saturday, but none would be there perhaps without Triple Honour.

“I just remember my life changed forever from the 200m mark that day,” Waller said.

“From that, I had the confidence to back myself as a Group 1 trainer and so much flowed on from there. Like any sportsperson making decisions, any confidence irreplaceable and that win gave me confidence

“You can’t buy it, you can’t make it happen, but when it does, when you get it, you go to a new personal level.”

And that certainly Waller has done since but at that time he had quietly questioned himself as if it was ever going to happen.

Triple Honour had run the barest of seconds to the then dominant Weekend Hussler in the Randwick Guineas, Weekend Hussler was a $1.65 favourite, Triple Honour $21, but the defeat hurt.

Waller likened it to his “Bryce Heys’ moment when Spieth was nutted in the Darley Classic and then again the Lightning Stakes.

“For me it was like the end of the world, I thought I had won the race and it was my one opportunity to win a group 1 race and it was gone.

“I wondered what you had to do to train G1 winners, why could other people do it, and I couldn’t,” Waller said.

So Waller pressed on with Triple Honour towards the Hobartville Stakes and a flat sixth there had him further questioning his abilities. “I could have sent the horse to the paddock but I took some advice and persevered with the Doncaster plan and thankfully I did,” Waller said.

“Look we were training winners at the time, mainly in winter and mainly with older horses and I was starting to get some respect, but I was far from being considered a group 1 trainer and it was hard going to the big sales without a group 1 winner next to your name and expect to get the best horses.”

Waller had his name put in the spotlight though some months earlier when Bob Ingham anointed the young Kiwi (then without a Group 1) as trainer for their racing empire.

“That gave me confidence and I wasn’t over-awed by the group 1 occasion I just hadn’t achieved it. You start worrying about what record books say about races, what such and such trainer has done to win them, what’s never worked before, and you forget about the basics, training your horse,” Waller said.

“Once it happened the first thing I learned was to relax and let it flow. I look at what Darren Weir has done and his success and so much seems about keeping the horse happy and then the races unfold, whether they are a midweek, a Saturday or a group 1 race, and that’s been the cornerstone of my training methods,” Waller said.

Waller also reflected on the importance of that win in setting him on the path to his current lofty status from where he came from landing in Australia with one horse.

“I have never been any good at having a beer with the owners and I have been consistently the same in that regard,” Waller said.

“I have never been a spruiker and I still find it a little irritating today to watch young trainers spruiking themselves, that’s not me, that’s not part of me and I never thought I’d get ahead because of it.

“But Australian’s seem to love up and coming people having a go and what I could offer was enthusiasm, and communication, that was my way of competing,” Waller said.

He proudly says paying every bill was paramount early days and he never allowed himself the thought of an overdraft. What he focussed on was hard work and building belief.

“I think I found owners struggled to get into the bigger stables at the time and they came looking for the next big thing so to speak, like a Darren Weir say, but my clientele started to change, I had a lot of loyal supporters backing me and then re-investing at the next level hoping it would work and when it did it all started to take off and the opportunities arose.”

Waller’s demeanour rarely changes on a racecourse, a win is more likely to see a tear then a fist punch, but there is a pride (in himself) as much as the animal lurking inside that sometime steely persona.

And the brain is not resting.

“Yes I am a better trainer today then I was back then but I am still working on improving, I am not the complete package yet, people say I need to get more two-year-old winners and that’s a fair observation but I have to keep doing what is best for the horse first.

His squad for Saturday’s Doncaster Mile is: McCreery ($8) Antonio Giuseppe ($13), Endless Drama ($17) and Arod ($51).

– g1x.com.au

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