Straight Talk

November 18, 2008

Come on down!

words by STEPHEN HOWELL

TRAINER CHRIS WALLER BELIEVES MELBOURNE RACING HAS THE EDGE ON HIS HOME TOWN SYDNEY.

photography by COURTESY OF CHRIS WALLER RACING WEBSITE

Rosehill trainer Chris Waller had four horses race in Victoria without winning this Spring, so he isn't talking through his pocket when he describes the Melbourne carnival as brilliant.

"I used to think our racing was just as good," Waller (35) said of Sydney's sport. "But Melbourne's edged in front - by a pretty big margin. Melbourne (during spring) to me is like a country town, where everyone gets right behind the carnival."

It even gets hold of the Sydney raiders. Waller, with 70 horses in work at Rosehill, including the new "boutique" team owned by Bob Ingham and family, plans to turn incidental visits of recent years into an attack in force next spring.

The trainer said the carnival, from Caulfield to Flemington, was well run, with the Flemington week Australian racing's shop window. And, having missed the 2007 carnival because the equine influenza outbreak prevented NSW horses from crossing the border, Waller said it was obvious that Melbourne's spring racing had gone to another level.

"What I'd love to see is Sydney try to get the same facilities," he said, claiming to be a New South Welshman now after moving from New Zealand to train in 2000. "Rosehill is good and equates with Caulfield and Moonee Valley, but it would be just great if Randwick stepped up to be the next Flemington and we could get close. Until then we'll struggle.''

Waller said he wasn't political, but suggested government support was needed to help the industry and the clubs to raise the bar in Sydney. He said Melbourne was richer for the public and private financial support of the carnival.

"Even Crown Casino's got a big impact on the culture and the scene. Everybody mingles around there ... you're rubbing shoulders with a Who's Who of Australia, and there's an international flavour. Brilliant.

"The Melbourne Cup has great prizemoney. (But) a lot of those high profile people such as Coolmore and Lloyd Williams don't need the money. It's more the event, they just want to be in it."

Waller does too, having absorbed what goes on. "You've got to be seen at those events," he said. "You network, you pick up clients."

While Waller said his praise was for the presentation of the carnival as an event, he talked glowingly of Flemington as a foolproof training centre. His Thousand Guineas runner Love And Kisses was stabled with Aquanita at Caulfield, but his Flemington runners Triple Honour, Hoystar and Double Dare were on track there with Danny O'Brien, whose stables Waller said were first class and with whom he has a reciprocal arrangement.

Waller has had only one Melbourne winner - Shinzig in the Group 3 Schweppes Cup (1400 metres)at Caulfield in the autumn of 2005 - but estimated he had 10 seconds, including Hoystar in a Listed sprint at Flemington on Oaks day. And, he said, Triple Honour was a touch unlucky when fourth in the Group 1 Patinack Farm Classic on the final day after tripping at the start.

Waller said a lesson learnt is that a trainer has to set a horse for Melbourne, not come down as an afterthought. He expects to have a handful of runners next autumn and "attack in force'' next spring.

Waller has had more starters in Sydney than any other trainer this season. He is second to Gai Waterhouse on the premiership ladder, just ahead of Darley's Peter Snowden.

While Snowden is developing the old Ingham team bought by Darley, Waller expects to have the first of his Ingham two-year-olds racing in cerise after Christmas -Bob Ingham spent $18 million on 24 yearlings in April, and is primed for his second coming. If one of the cerise team isn't ready for the Blue Diamond Stakes in the Melbourne autumn, the Caulfield Guineas or Thousand Guineas might beckon in the spring.

****

The view from Sydney of the southern carnival is rosy, but no more so than that from the US, where the 1895 praise of Mark Twain has been repeated by Earle Mack, businessman, racing administrator and owner of Cup runner Mad Rush.

Mack, who was in Melbourne to watch Mad Rush earn $115,000 for what he described as a credible seventh, urged Americans to send their turf horses Down Under.

Writing for Thoroughbred Daily News, Mack quoted Twain:

"Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me."

While Mack, himself, might have got it wrong in writing that Australia is one of the nations that truly love Americans, he was on the mark when he said Cup week has to be seen to be believed. "Over the four days of the carnival, more than 400,000 people walked through the turnstiles,'' he wrote. "To put that into perspective, the Breeders' Cup attendance (in Santa Anita, California) was 82,000 over two days. The Cup's on-track attendance translates to more than two per cent of the Australian population. In our country, that would be more than six million people on track."

Mack said Cup day was truly beautiful, parts of the course could be mistaken for a botanic gardens and it was user-friendly. "The day lends itself to tremendous fashion, with the most beautiful collection of hats and women you are ever likely to see at any race day around the world, including our Kentucky Derby Day," he wrote.

He enjoyed the city parade the day before the Cup, when he "rode in the car at the top of the parade as the owner of the favourite, alongside Mad Rush's trainer Luca Cumani and his jockey Damien Oliver.

"Many experts say the Melbourne Cup, with its $5.5 million purse, is the toughest race to win in the world, and, after seeing it in person, I would concur. The track itself was well-watered, but fast and firm, and is sure to favour our own turf horses, but gives every horse an opportunity to win.

"So why not come Down Under and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Cup in 2010? The purse is expected to be raised to $10 million ... surely, this is enough to entice the best horses, jockeys, trainers and owners. This carnival has captured me and it's by far the most exciting and memorable experience of my 45 years in racing."

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