Chris Waller versus legends TJ and Bart at 50

Legendary trainer Tommy Smith – he of the 33 straight Sydney trainers’ premierships – marked his 50th birthday on September 3, 1966 with a win in the Canterbury Guineas.

The horse’s name was Garcon, owned by David Chrystal, one of the proprietors of Woodlands Stud, and ridden by George Moore.

When an official count was made by Form Focus of Smith’s 246 victories in Group One races, that win, one of 11 in the race now known as the Rosehill Guineas, came in No.74 chronologically, an achievement at that point unprecedented by any Australian trainer by their 50th birthday.

It came 20 years and five months since his very first victory in a race that would be classified Group 1.

Eleven years later, on November 14, 1977, it was Bart Cummings’ turn to celebrate his 50th birthday. Cummings’ milestone came 13 days after he captured his sixth Melbourne Cup with Gold And Black.

When Bart’s 246 total Group 1s were calculated by Form Focus, that 1977 Melbourne Cup victory was to be counted as his 103rd Group One success.

It was the era when Cummings was in his pomp. He won 16 Group 1 races as a trainer that 1977/78 season, his second most successful season ever behind 1974/75. In seven weeks from October 1 that year he won a Caulfield Cup, a Melbourne Cup, and four Derbies – the AJC, VRC, WA and South Australian Classics.

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Cummings’ first Group 1 had come 19 years’ earlier, at age 30, in the South Australian Derby.

On Tuesday, Chris Waller celebrated his 50th birthday. Given the day of the week it fell on, there was no feature win, not even a runner, but it allowed the rest of us to reflect on where the Kiwi-born horseman sits in Australian racing history.  

Waller’s first Group 1 winner came when he was 34, through Triple Honour in the Doncaster Handicap. Now, 16 years later, he has 156 Group 1 wins, more than double the total of Smith at the same age and 53 more than Cummings.

Looking at individual Group One winners trained by age 50, Waller has 75, Cummings had 57 and Smith 36.

The only other current trainer in Waller’s league for Group 1 wins is Smith’s daughter Gai Waterhouse.

She has 159 Group 1 wins either under her own name or in partnership with Adrian Bott. Her 50th birthday came in September 2004 by which time she had 49 Group 1 wins. Her first Group 1 win did not come until she was 38, soon after she took over Tulloch Lodge.

The only other Australian trainers who have reached the century are Lee Freedman on 127 (124 under his own name) and John Hawkes on 117 (96 under his own name).

Freedman had enormous success early in his training career and turned 50 in August 2006, by which time he had 115 Group 1 wins, second only behind Waller on that mark.

Hawkes turned 50 in early 1999 and up until that point had 32 Group 1 wins.