Chris Waller The Season's Group One Star
- Sunday, 26 July 2015 08:22
In a season overshadowed by ongoing investigations into illegal cobalt use, there were still some shining moments on the track.
Sydney's premier trainer Chris Waller was also Australia's most successful at the highest level, collecting 14 Group One trophies.
Underlining Waller's achievement, those 14 Group One races were won by 13 different horses, some old and some new.
The only Waller-trained horse to win twice at Group One level was Brazen Beau who is now lost to racing and will stand at Darley Stud in the spring.
For Waller there were many highlights but the first day of the Melbourne Cup carnival stands out.
"Winning the Derby with Preferment and and the Coolmore with Brazen Beau on the same day was pretty special," Waller said.
"He's Your Man went down by a nostril in the Mackinnon and Kermadec won the first race on the program, the Carbine Club Stakes."
A third-place finish by Who Shot Thebarman in the Melbourne Cup was Waller's best result in the race so far.
Kermadec went on in the autumn to give Waller his fifth Doncaster Mile win and along with Preferment will be among the stable's spring hopes for further Group One glory.
Workaholic is a word that applies to Waller who is driven to find the next Group One winner and to keep winning Sydney premierships with the tally at five.
"It's a good barometer when you're racing every Wednesday and Saturday," Waller said.
"You can soon tell if something isn't quite right and you never get too far ahead of yourself.
""We don't have a stable full of stars but we have a stable full of nice horses with supporting owners and a good team behind me preparing them. It's a good way to go into the new season."
Waller admits to soaking up as much as he can from rival trainers including the irrepressible Gai Waterhouse who was equal second with Peter Moody with seven Group One winners during the season.
At the top of the Waterhouse team list was Vancouver, a colt spruiked by his trainer as the best of his generation and he didn't let anyone down, giving Waterhouse her sixth Golden Slipper to equal the record of her father, the late TJ Smith.
Among her other wins was the Doomben Cup with Pornichet, a former European horse which will be aimed at the Melbourne Cup.
Dissident headed Moody's haul with four elite wins to put himself in the frame for Horse of the Year honours, twice that of any other horse.
The emergence of Peter and Paul Snowden as a training force to be reckoned with was underscored by the pair's five Group One wins including two by Pride Of Dubai.
The colt has yet to clash with Vancouver but the two are expected to be set on the same path during the spring.
John O'Shea, who took over from Peter Snowden as Sheikh Mohammed's head trainer in Australia, completed his first full season for his new boss with three Group One wins, the same as Victoria's Ciaron Maher.
