Waller’s unparalleled spring nets close to $40 million

Trainer Chris Waller has compiled the richest spring carnival in history, with his runners banking close to $40 million in prize money across the past three and a half months.

With $39.5 million accrued already, Waller has been going at a daily rate of $383,650, or over $50,000 per starter. If he were to retain that rate – something highly unlikely given the superior prize money on offer in the spring – his runners would surpass $100 million for the season.

Given that trainers typically take a 10 per cent cut of prize money, Waller has been raking in well over $1 million per month since August, making him among the most highly rewarded sports figures in Australia.   

Waller’s lucrative run this spring has seen him win 10 races worth more than $1 million each.

They include Australia’s equal second richest race, the Golden Eagle, and the Epsom Handicap with Autumn Glow, the Cox Plate, the Champions Stakes and the Winx Stakes with Via Sistina, the Caulfield Guineas with Autumn Boy and the Golden Rose with Beiwacht.

Waller also won the Hill Stakes with Lindermann, the 7 Stakes with Fangirl and The Shorts with Joliestar.

Combined, the first-placed prize money for those races is worth $17.3 million. Autumn Glow banked $6.8 million herself across her four unbeaten runs in the spring, while Via Sistina added $6.6 million, moving to $19.4 million overall, fourth overall in Australia.

Joliestar is the stable’s third-highest earner with just over $2.05 million, followed by Autumn Boy ($1.88 million), and Lady Shenandoah, who added $1.54 million without winning a race.

Waller is a chance to surpass $40 million for the season this week, with Angel Capital expected to start close to favourite in the $1 million CF Orr Stakes, while he has a host of chances in the major races on The Hunter day at Newcastle.

No trainer has ever had his runners earn $40 million in a single spring, and only two in history have done it over an entire season. Waller has surpassed that mark every season since 2018/19, while Ciaron Maher has completed that feat in the past two seasons.

Maher set a new mark last season with $60.5 million in prize money, eclipsing Waller with $55.4 million.

But Waller looks set to smash that record once again, and reassert his dominance over Maher with his runners earning $16 million more than his rival to this point of the season.

Waller is the only Australian trainer with over 100 winners to date – 107 to be exact – while he has had 103 seconds and 92 thirds from 770 runners.

But even the races Waller is not winning or placing are proving lucrative.

In the Melbourne Cup, his best-placed runner was River Of Stars in fourth. She collected $360,000 for her efforts, while Valiant King (16th), More Felons (18th), Land Legend (22nd) and Buckaroo (24th) all received $100,000 under the Victoria Racing Club’s new prize money structure.

That is a total of $760,000, of which $76,000 goes back to the Waller stable.

Similarly, in The Everest, Joliestar, Angel Capital and Lady Shenandoah ran fifth, sixth and seventh and added a combined $2.85 million to their prize money total, and, in theory, $285,000 to the stable’s bank balance.     

Waller’s runners are earning an average of $51,319 per start this season. To give that some context, that is over twice what his average earnings per starter was last season, $23,045.

Waller’s $39.5 million is 16.9 per cent of all the prize money earned by the Top 100 trainers in Australia so far this season.

Combined with Maher’s $23.6 million, it means the top two trainers in Australia have earned 26.9 per cent of the total in the Top 100.

To give the dominance of certain stables further context, the top four stables, Waller, Maher, Joe Pride and Tony and Calvin McEvoy, have earned more money between them ($83.9 million) than the next 19 trainers combined ($82.5 million).

James McDonald has earned the most prize money this spring, with his rides having won $20.7 million this season. Jockeys typically earn 5 per cent, putting McDonald over $1 million in winning commissions already this season.