So, what’s it like when The Queen’s corgis are dashing around your feet over lunch?
“It’s the one thing that stops conversation at the table when people ask what that experience was like,” laughs Australian-based horse trainer Chris Waller. “Everybody wants to listen.”
The nexus between horse racing and wider society is impressive, and it’s not uncommon for trainers to prepare horses for anyone from heads of state, to politicians, business leaders, movie stars and sporting celebrities.
A former Australian prime minister, Bob Hawke, once shouted a round of drinks at the public bar at Rosehill Gardens with legendary adman John Singleton after Belle Du Jour won the Golden Slipper in 2000. Show me a racecourse and I’ll show you people from all walks of life.
But few trainers can boast of a relationship like the one all-conquering Waller had with Queen Elizabeth II. It wasn’t just because he’s a genius horse trainer who prepared some horses for her in Australia. It was genuine.
Her Majesty became infatuated with Waller’s Winx, arguably the greatest Australian racehorse of all time. Winx won her last 33 races straight. Upon the mare’s retirement, Waller gifted Queen Elizabeth one of the shoes she wore in her final race. Fittingly, it was the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick in 2019.
Perhaps it was no surprise when the thoroughbred-obsessed Queen died in 2022, only 10 people from Australia (excluding dignitaries) received an invite. The New Zealander Waller was one.
Only a few months earlier, the champion trainer had prepared Nature Strip to be his first winner at Royal Ascot in the King’s Stand Stakes over five furlongs. For everything he had achieved in his career in Australia, it was a moment which almost overwhelmed him.
“It was straight after the race, I got ushered into a room and basically told, ‘Her Majesty would like to speak to you’,” Waller tells Idol Horse. “She wasn’t well, but she called.
“That was pretty amazing. In a nutshell, that’s how special the week can be and how lucky we are to be involved in a globally recognised sport. She just loved life, different sports, Australia, people and she had a very special love of (horse racing).”
There are few that understand the history and tradition of horse racing like Waller, which is why Royal Ascot has always been a natural fit.
To call him a freak would be doing him a disservice. Having arrived in Sydney with one horse and a maxed-out credit card more than two decades ago, living off his wife Stephanie’s modelling career, he might not just be one of the greatest self-made stories in horse racing, but Australian sport in general.
His work ethic is relentless, his methods meticulous and repeated year after year after year. The sight of Waller buried in his laptop in the press room seated alongside reporters during a raceday is not new. But it’s how he keeps pace with a winning machine canvassing hundreds of horses in training at any time down the eastern seaboard.
The 53-year-old is on track to smash all the training records in Australia, even if the country has a disproportionate number of Group 1 races compared to yesteryear.
He’s just ticked past 200 Group 1 winners and is fast closing in on the legendary Tommy Smith and Bart Cummings (both 246). Smith lorded over Sydney racing for decades, winning an astonishing 33 straight training titles.
Waller is about to win his 16th in succession. His horses will rack up more than A$50 million in earnings for the season alone, and he’s had three times as many starters as his nearest rival. Owners have long decided if you can’t beat him, join him. It’s not a matter of if you can afford to have a horse with racing’s history maker, can you afford not to have one with him?
Which is why the sight of him flying to the other side of the world to tend to one horse, Joliestar, who will jump favourite in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs on the final day of the carnival, is a peculiar one.
Contrary to opinion, Royal Ascot has never been an obsession for Waller, not least of all because of the significant travel burden on his horses (Waller is an overly cautious handler) and the inferior stakes money to Australia’s top sprints.
“You might be half-hearted about certain ideas, but when you get that taste, you want it,” Waller says. “I thought the same about the Melbourne Cup for a long time. We had a few runners and never really got into it much. Then one year we ran fourth and then I said, ‘hello, this is winnable, this race’.”
Waller’s first foray to the United Kingdom was forgettable. Group 1 winner Zoustar travelled and then picked up an injury. He didn’t make the starting gates, but has since emerged as one of Australia’s best stallions.
The second traveller, Brazen Beau, made headlines for many reasons, not least of all because the colt’s Australian jockey, Craig Williams, plotted a solo path down the stand side away from the main pack. He was beaten half-a-length.
Nature Strip won in 2022, the same year another crack stallion, Home Affairs, failed.
“It was one of those occasions which was quite surreal,” Waller says of Nature Strip. “Going to the start, I was quite nervous and wanted to keep occupied waiting for the minutes to count down. The gates crashed open and it was like 10 seconds later he was in front and looked the winner. It was so quick and so surreal, almost shock.”
What most people don’t realise is despite the infrequent campaigns at Royal Ascot, Waller once considered setting up a satellite base in the northern hemisphere.
“When we first went, I thought, ‘should we get a small stable there?’ We were getting a lot of imports at the time,” he says. “I even thought about Dubai. But gee we’ve got it good in Australia. We’ve got it so good. I’ve really woken up to how lucky we are to be in Australia.”
If you were to find a prototype Waller horse, Joliestar might be it. She was always a talent, a Group 1 winner over a mile at three, but had flaws. She would often settle too far from the leaders, or stubbed her toe in track conditions which didn’t suit.
Waller didn’t panic. He never does. Just as he turned Nature Strip from the headstrong, free-wheeling sprinter who would gas himself too early and too often, he slowly sprinkled his magic dust on Joliestar. And at the end of her five-year-old campaign, she’s morphed into Australia’s best sprinter, unbeaten in three runs this year.
But with the ominous and gargantuan shadow of Ka Ying Rising looming over this year’s A$20 million The Everest, a trip to the other side of the world looks more appealing than a trip to the other side of Sydney.
“If Joliestar happened to win, she’s recognised globally forever,” Waller says. “She deserves that opportunity because she’s in the mature years of her career. She’s showing that in her form, and she’s unbeaten this preparation. She’s racing consistently so she deserves that opportunity.
“She’s consistently raced the best sprinters in Australia. She hasn’t always beaten them, but often there’s been a reason: a track condition, a barrier, or luck in running. Her maturity now is overcoming those challenges.”
And the key to travelling horses that far from home? Like always with Waller, simplicity.
“You cannot underestimate how important the recovery is – and it’s so simple,” he says. “It’s drinking water, eating food and staying relaxed. That would be 90 per cent, training is 10 per cent. It’s all about recovery and I allow seven days for recovery (once they land).”
If Joliestar wins, there will be no need for Waller to be ushered into a little room, waiting for The Queen to call. It’s a shame, because Waller genuinely loved those conversations. He’s a racing man, she was a racing woman.
But he’ll always have the memory of being able to talk horses with Her Majesty, corgis and all. ∎
