Run The Numbers – Waller scales up success without increasing numbers

By every measure, 2025/26 will be Chris Waller’s most successful as a trainer.

He easily broke his own record for the most Group 1 wins in a season with 22 victories at the highest level – three more than his previous best.

He currently has 370 winners, 29 more than his biggest haul, and he will dethrone Ciaron Maher at the top of the national trainers’ premiership for the first time since 2021/22. It is the highest number of winners by an Australian-based trainer in the past eight seasons.

The turnaround in that standing has been quite remarkable. Last season, Maher had 54.5 more winners than Waller. This season, the Kiwi-born trainer is clear by 45 with 10 days left. That hasn’t been because Maher has stepped back; he is likely to have more winners this season than last, but because Waller has put his foot firmly on the accelerator at a time when Maher was looking to muscle in on his Sydney base. 

That has also yielded stronger commercial returns. Waller’s runners have banked an incredible $79.6 million in prize money this campaign, $24 million more than they did in the 2025/26 season, a 44 per cent increase on what was already an Australian record.

It will also be Waller’s busiest season in terms of runners as he ramped up the scale-led approach which has helped him become the dominant trainer in the country over the past decade. As things stand, he has had 2658 Australian starters this season. That is 173 more than his previous season high, set in 2018/19.

It is also the most starters by an Australian trainer in a single season since Darren Weir’s 3175, set in 2017/18.

What is interesting is that all of these record marks for Waller were achieved without a significant increase in his active horse numbers.

According to Racing NSW data, the only place where active stable numbers are published, Waller has 460 horses listed under his care, which is 40 fewer than he had listed at a similar time in 2024.

A couple of notes on those figures. They do not include unraced/unnamed horses that are with the stable. They also do not include horses which may have been in Waller’s care and transferred elsewhere during the season.

It is highly probable that with the number of unraced two-year-olds set to come into the stable in the new season, those figures will surge.

However, as the data filter is the same for all trainers, it is the best indicator we have for relative stable size across the country, even if it is not strictly accurate.

On this measure, he has the second largest number of horses of any stable in the country. Maher has 506 listed under his name, 46 more than his chief rival.

Despite Maher’s strong presence in NSW over the past couple of years, there is still a state-by-state divide between the two big stables. Waller has had 1057 more runners than Maher in NSW this season; Maher has had 1002 more than Waller in Victoria.

Overall, Maher’s number of starters this season was 360 fewer than Waller, with Maher’s strike rate of 14.2 per cent marginally higher than Waller’s 14 per cent.

While Maher has had, to this point, 130 fewer starters than last season, it is still, statistically, his second busiest.

The interesting dynamic for Maher is that in 2022/23, his last full season in partnership with David Eustace, he had 22 more winners than he currently has this season, with 408 fewer starters.

Maybe that doesn’t matter when you consider his runners have collected just shy of $55 million in prize money, nearly twice as much as they did in that 2022/23 campaign, where he set his own record mark for total winners.

Beyond those two names, the next biggest stable, as measured per the Racing NSW website numbers, is Ben, Will and JD Hayes, who have 358 horses listed.

The revival of Lindsay Park under the three brothers has been one of the major stories of Australian racing in the past couple of years. They have had 1563 starters in 2025/26 and will likely eclipse last year’s mark of 1584, which would make it the busiest year for the stable since 2019/20.

They have taken a step back in terms of wins this campaign – that figure stands at 215 as opposed to 253.5 last year, while the comparative prize money of their runners has fallen from $22.8 million to $21.2 million. They will most likely finish third on the Australian trainers’ premiership for the third straight year.

The fourth biggest stable, in terms of numbers, is Tony Gollan, who has had a record 209 winners this season, 15 more than last season, with only 34 extra starters. He has 299 horses listed in his stable. Gollan’s statistics on every line this season represent a career-best, and there is still time to improve on them in the final few days.

In fifth place, in terms of size, are Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, with 278 horses listed alongside their names.

What is interesting is that while Tulloch Lodge occupies that space in terms of stable size, they are only ninth when it comes to total starters this season, and eighth overall when it comes to winners, with 128. It is the lowest number of starters Waterhouse and Bott have had since 2020/21 and the fewest winners since 2018/19.

Annabel and Rob Archibald have been a rising power of racing over the past few years and have been the fourth busiest stable this season, with 1450 runners to date, and 208.5 winners.

However, their current stable numbers, according to the Racing NSW-published figure, are 254, nearly half that of Annabel’s former boss Ciaron Maher. Statistically, it has been a year of consolidation for the stable, with 131 fewer runners to this point, 27.5 fewer winners and $10.8 million less in prize money earned.

The other two stables with more than 200 horses listed are Bjorn Baker and Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr.

Baker, who currently sits fifth in the national premiership with 131.5 winners, has 209 individual stable runners. While he has had more runners this season, 778 compared to 757, he has had 25.5 fewer winners than 2024/25, while his runners have earned $6 million less. It is still, however, his second-best season by some margin.

Price and Kent Jr have exactly 200 horses listed across their NSW and Victorian bases.  They sit 10th on the national table this season, with 15.5 fewer winners and 104 fewer runners. They have increased their prize money haul by $3.8 million, helped by Guest House’s victory in the Golden Slipper.

One last mention for a name that doesn’t figure this season, James Cummings. Cummings’s departure from Godolphin at the start of this season precipitated a major change in training stats at the top end.

Waller has been one of the key beneficiaries, and not just in terms of the few Godolphin horses that have headed his way.

If you add up the number of winners combined between Waller and Cummings last year it comes to 360, only 10 less than Waller’s overall total this year, while the champion trainer has absorbed the $17 million that Cummings winners banked in his final season, plus $7 million more, in 2025/26, as compared to last season.