Waller threatens to steal O’Brien’s world record
Champion trainer Chris Waller approaches 5000 career wins this week as a world record beckons before the end of the year.
Waller’s success is often underestimated, even though he has been at the top of Australian racing for two decades.
The talk of the Breeders’ Cup was the master of Ballydoyle, Aidan O’Brien, equalling his world record of 28 Group 1 wins for a year as he won three Group 1s at the United States’ biggest weekend in the sport.
But the world record might change hands in 2026 with Waller on 25 Group 1 wins after a top-level double of his own on Saturday. With nine Group 1 races left in Australia, the betting man has a good chance of passing O’Brien.
While O’Brien was feted, Waller’s dominance goes without comment as he wins more than a third of the Australian Group 1 races. There is an expectation that Waller just wins these races.
But 2026 is outstanding even by Waller’s lofty standards, as he usually wins between 15 and 20 Group 1 races each year.
The comparison between Waller and O’Brien makes the Rosehill trainer’s achievement even more impressive. Waller has fewer chances to win Group 1 races than the Irish master, who can travel the world to give his horses their chance at the top grade in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Waller would have access to around 80 Group 1 races, while O’Brien has starters in well over 100.
The pair are good friends and have a deep respect. O’Brien has the highest-profile job in racing as trainer for breeding giant Coolmore, which Waller also teams with as part of his stable in Australia.
But Waller is a competitor and has the talent in his stable to win more Group 1s in Melbourne and Perth to close the year.
If he can add a Western Australian Group 1 at the Pinnacles carnival later this month, he will become the first trainer to win a Group 1 in each of the five Australian states that host top-level racing in a single year.
Waller has outsiders Soul Of Spain and Asterix in the Melbourne Cup, De Armas is second pick in betting for the VRC Oaks, while champion Autumn Glow will start a short price in Saturday’s Champions Mile, while Joliestar is second favourite in the Champions Sprint and Aeliana and Birdman are great hopes in the Champions Stakes.
No scan, no start in the Cup should mean refunds for pre-post punters
Racing Victoria needs to review its handling of the Melbourne Cup scans to avoid the ambulance chasing that happened last week.
The scans are expected as part of the race that stops the nation these days, by trainers and punters, but it becomes a game of working out who has and hasn’t been scanned.
The Melbourne Cup is the biggest betting race of the year and therefore the biggest form of revenue for RVL for the year but it doesn’t protect its customers.
If a horse fails the scans, it was never going to be at Flemington on Tuesday, as it is a condition of the race, so all bets should be refunded.
There should be a register of which horses have been scanned so punters can bet knowing where they stand. It is common sense.
The scans should be complete before Cox Plate weekend, with the exception of runners that weekend, which would keep the focus on the race and horses rather than the scans.
So You Are’s Cup success would give Lobb a new knee
Bjorn Baker’s right-hand man, Glenn Lobb, hopes So You Are can help pay for knee surgery after the spring.
Lobb saddles most of Baker’s runners in Sydney, and was bowled over by So You Are in the mounting yard when he was adjusting his saddle before his St Leger win, aggravating a knee problem.
“It just made it worse, because I went over on it at a funny angle,” Lobb said.
“We thought he was a nice stayer when he arrived, and I couldn’t help myself but have a couple of dollars on him in the Cup.
“I need to get the knee done and if he wins it will pay for it and a little holiday as well.”
Australia’s GST laws stopped two shares of 2.5% being sold in Melbourne Cup contender Wine Dark Sea on Inglis Digital last week.
The shares were withdrawn when the owners were informed that shares could not be transferred under the conditions under which it entered the country.
Wine Dark Sea will run in the Melbourne Cup as a $41 chance under the same ownership as the Caulfield Cup.
Meanwhile, Vauban will have five new owners for the Melbourne Cup after a handful of packages of shares, ranging from 2.5% to one per cent, were sold on Inglis Digital last week.
Dancing Gringotts is weakening the carnival
The other big race on Melbourne Cup day, The Big Dance at Randwick, has good bones but bad execution at the moment.
The idea of getting all the NSW country cup winners together to race for $3 million on the biggest day for Australian racing has a lot of merit and could give Racing NSW a great marketing tool in towns and cities around the state.
But adding The Gong and The Hunter, both $1 million races, as qualifying races ruins the scale for the handicap.
Group 1 winner Gringotts has won The Big Dance and The Gong for the past two years, earning two-thirds of his $6 million career prizemoney.
His presence in the quality handicap destroys the spread in the weights. Gringotts has 62kg as a $1 million race winner, while next in the weights Formal Display has 56.5 after winning the $200,000 Tamworth Cup. With Gringotts in the race there are only five horses above the limit, if he wasn’t there only five would be on the limit.
You can’t blame Gringotts’ connections for targeting The Big Dance, there is $1.7 million for the winner, but it means a George Ryder Stakes winner is lost to the King Charles III Stakes and other premier contests during the carnival for an easier assignment where he is a $3 chance of winning.
One for the punters
If Disneck appears again in Cup week, he is well worth following from his sixth at Flemington on Saturday. He was on the wrong side of the track and got buffeted by the wind as he made his run towards the inside in a race where the first five home had cover from a crosswind and came close to the outside fence.
One from the stewards
It will pay not to give up on Hankee Alpha, who only got clear back to the unfavoured inside as favourite in the Rising Fast Stakes.
“Held up for clear running from the 500m to near the 150m,” stewards reported. “When questioned, rider Craig Williams explained that he was able to obtain a favourable trailing position behind Napoleonic, which was a favoured runner, in the early stages. C. Williams added that when Napoleonic commenced to come under pressure from the 500m, he endeavoured to shift in to secure clear running and whilst an opening presented briefly between Gallant Son and Napoleonic passing the 300m, he was of the view there was not sufficient room to improve and when Gallant Son and Napoleonic both shifted ground, he continued to be held up until securing clear running near the 150m where, once clear, Hankee Alpha ran on strongly.”
One for the bookies
Jimmysstar has been a great sprinter, maybe even better at 1400m, but Father Time is catching up with him. He will always attract support from punters, but the next generation might have his measure going forward.
One for the futures
US Hall of Fame trainer Wesley Ward was talking a big game after Bacio on the Breeders’ Cup Sprint Turf on Sunday. He claimed Bacio was the fastest horse in the world and set to come to Australia to prove it in next year’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes. Bacio isn’t in The Everest market yet, but he soon will be for the believers in the American speed machine.
