Run The Numbers – Trainers maketh the stallion

Chris Waller’s influence on the Australian breeding industry extends well beyond just the stallions he has trained himself. This week’s Run The Numbers digs into the number of winners he has prepared by Australia’s top sires.

For the first time, a stallion trained by Chris Waller during its racing days is set to claim the title of Australia’s champion sire.

More than 11 years since he ran his final race for Waller, Zoustar holds a seemingly unassailable lead on the sires’ table heading into the final five weeks of the season.  And he owes his old master a debt for helping him get across the line.

Waller has trained more Zoustar winners, 14, than any other trainer this season, and progeny of the Widden Stud star have compiled $4.3 million across 17 total wins. Among that list is Joliestar, the winner of two Group 1 races this season.

It is a continuation of a long affinity between the progeny of Zoustar and the sire’s former stable. Waller is clearly the most successful trainer of Zoustars, with 96 race wins across 40 individual winners and total earnings of $17.1 million.

Second on the list of wins by the progeny of Zoustar is Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott with 52 racetrack victories from 25 individual Zoustar winners, while Tony and Calvin McEvoy have 45 (19 winners) – McEvoy another 17 himself before he partnered with his son.

As one of Australia’s largest stables over that time, Waller has also been afforded the most opportunity with Zoustar’s sons and daughters, with his 74 individual Zoustar runners more than double anyone else.

While Zoustar may be the first of Waller’s graduates to taste glory as a champion sire, there is no end of the possible candidates to join him in the future.

Current sires to have been trained by Waller include The Autumn Sun, Brazen Beau, D’Argento, Kermadec and emerging stars Home Affairs, Shinzo, Switzerland and Private Life.

The connection between the progeny of stallions and those who trained them is something that bobs up several times when you look at the current top 10 Australian sires.

Zoustar fee steady as Widden reacts to market

Zoustar will stand at an unchanged fee of $275,000 for the 2025 Australian breeding season but half of Widden’s 20-strong roster have had price reductions.

The StraightTim Rowe

Gerald Ryan has had 203 racetrack wins from Snitzel’s progeny, 163 in his own name and 40 in partnership with Sterling Alexiou.  

In terms of individual winners, he had 72 winners by his former Group 1 winner, and another 19 with Alexiou. Waller is equal second on the Snitzel list with 134 wins (52), 12 more than Peter and Paul Snowden (51), and 18 more than Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott (51 individual winners).

The Snowdens, who are now training individually, prepared Capitalist, currently Australia’s ninth-ranked stallion, and have been the most successful stable for the sire, with 36 wins from 18 winners. Tony Gollan is second for Capitalist, with 30 wins.

And the fourth sire where the most successful stable for progeny is the same as that which trained them in their racing days, is 10th-placed All Too Hard.

Team Hawkes has won 50 races with the progeny of the Vinery Stud stallion, with 20 individual winners. David Vandyke is second on that list, with 35 wins from 11 winners.      

Outside of Zoustar, Waller is also the leading trainer when it comes to wins for four other sires in the top 10.

He has had tremendous success with I Am Invincible, the champion sire of the past three seasons, with 167 winners in total across 67 horses, banking just short of $19 million in prize money. Gollan has celebrated 131 wins (42) by the progeny of I Am Invincible, ahead of the Snowdens on 107 (51).

A Coolmore for Coolmore as Switzerland makes a stallion statement

Switzerland minted his future as one of Australia’s most valuable stallions with an emphatic win in the Coolmore Stud Stakes as Chris Waller and James McDonald nabbed a Flemington Group 1 double, while it was a South Australian-flavoured Victoria Derby.

The StraightBren O’Brien

Waller also leads the way when it comes to the previous champion sire, Written Tycoon, who is currently fifth on the sires table this season.

He has had 48 wins from the progeny of Written Tycoon (21 winners), three more than Bjorn Baker and Peter and Paul Snowden. The Snowdens have had one more winner than Waller, with 22 (including Capitalist), while Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr have 20.

Waller has played a huge role in Fastnet Rock’s resurgence up the sires’ table to sixth this season, thanks to a substantial contribution from his champion mare Via Sistina, a lock to be Australia’s champion racehorse.

But it is also a continuation of a long-term run of stable success with the now-retired Coolmore champion. Waller has had 170 wins from 68 individual Fastnet Rock winners over the years. Lindsay Park, across both David Hayes and the Hayes/Dabernig combinations, have won 157 races.

It is worth mentioning that the data we have used doesn’t account for additions or departures from training partnerships. That means it is hard to establish individual winner and runner totals across multiple iterations of a stable, such as what has happened at Lindsay Park.

Ciaron Maher, with or without David Eustace, is another wrinkle in the data set we have. But it is safe to say that CMR has been the most successful stable when it comes to Pride Of Dubai, currently second on the sires table.

That won’t surprise anyone when you consider Maher has trained the Coolmore’s sire’s two champion mares, Pride of Jenni and Bella Nipotina. All in all, the stable has had 30 wins by the progeny of the son of Street Cry, more than double any other stable.

Waller has also been the most successful with the progeny of So You Think. He has had 67 wins by that sire from a collection of 23 winning horses. Joe Pride and Maher/Eustace have 39 apiece.

Seventh-placed Harry Angel is the youngest – and only Darley sire in the top 10. It is no surprise that James Cummings has the most success of Australian trainers with 13 wins from six horses, three more than Anthony and Sam Freedman (13 and 6).

Waller is the story from this statistical study, so we will sign off on the combined results from those stallions listed above. Incredibly, he has had over 700 wins from 283 winning horses and 472 horses in total when it comes to the stallions above. The overall prize money collected by those Waller horses is just short of $100 million.

Chris Waller’s record with progeny of leading stallions

Source: Racing And Sports