AAP journalist Chris Scholtz wrote an interesting article earlier this week about the
trainer’s ranks in NSW and Victoria which is very revealing.
It was an analytical look at the leading stables (by numbers) in
Waller and Weir and this correlation between numbers and the
poor 2yo results these stables achieve?
In review the article spoke about Darren Weir and Chris Waller having the Melbourne and Sydney training premierships sewn up based upon numbers of horses they train but they are nowhere to be seen as four main rivals fight out a close race for another coveted training honour this season.
It doesn’t carry an award but there is considerable prestige – not to mention the bragging rights - attached to finishing the season as Australia’s leading trainer of two-year-old winners.
Arguments, debates, call it what you like, facts remain there is major money available in the
Big 3 Majors for 2yo’s – The races that matter – GOLDEN SLIPPER, BLUE DIAMOND and MAGIC MILLIONS.
As we enter the last two months of the season, there are four trainers fighting for that honour – and they don’t include Weir or Waller.
The two giants of Victorian and NSW racing are not known for being astute two-year-old trainers, although Weir has made some impact this season by winning eight juvenile races among his near record haul of almost 300 wins to this point of time.
That puts him in the top 10 two-year-old trainers for the season and near the top of the strike rate list as his
eight wins have come from only
33 starters.
On the other hand Waller, despite increasing self-promotion and media profile as a major buyer at yearling sales, which many astute judges believed would (and should) see him enjoy increased success with two-year-olds, continues to play a steady bat when it comes to his juvenile results.
Waller has won just two juvenile races from 79 runners.
That’s double the number of two-year-old starters compared to Darren Weir this season but as much as Waller attempts to manufacture a profile of being a player in the major juvenile races, his style doesn’t adapt to training the youngsters.
Surely this must be a flashing light to owners that support the Kiwi trainer, that they have limited opportunity to see any two-year-old results and shoulder the costly exercise involved for converted 2yo success - which is negligible.
When consideration is given to the vast number of yearlings the stable buys and/or takes in from his clients and then, the stables 2yo results are poor, when a review of the races the stable wins with their older horses over the longer trips, it also highlights another issue, the vast number of proven European imports that stable buys and brings into Australia, which come in and gazump the Australasian yearlings they purchased for these same race targets. Hence why so many races are stacked with Waller runners.
The facts are there for all to see.
Certainly, this isn’t the case for the four stables that are in the hunt to claim the title of most juvenile wins.
Winning two-year-old races is very much what
John O’Shea, Gai Waterhouse, David Hayes and Tom Dabernig, and Peter and Paul Snowden are all about.
Between them, these 4 trainers have won more than
80 two-year-old races and the top three – Gai Waterhouse John O’Shea and Hayes/Dabernig – on I June were separated by just two wins after racing concluded that day.
O’Shea is now starting to deliver the results Sheikh Mohammed expected of him.
The Godolphin team have won 24 juvenile races, that’s just two ahead Gai Waterhouse and David Hayes/ Tom Dabernig.
The Snowden’s, who handed the vast Darley/Godolphin team to O’Shea in 2014, are seven wins behind but their good fortune ties in significantly with their association with James Harron whose unlimited budget to spend on horses has selected the yearlings and stocked the Snowden’s yards.
The fact is the Snowden’s two-year-old success stories this season are predominately from James Harron.
With top colt Capitalist landing the Magic Millions Classic/Golden Slipper double, Snowden’s naturally have a commanding lead in the juvenile prizemoney stakes.
The Snowden 2YO team have won more than $4.7 million, double the amount of second placed Mick Price ($2.3 million/seven wins) with O’Shea third ($2.26 million).
Gai Waterhouse and the Snowden’s boast much better strike rates with their two-year-olds than O’Shea and the Lindsay Park stable of Hayes/Dabernig.
O’Shea’s 24 wins have come from 138 starters and Hayes/Dabernig have struck 22 times from 116 2YO runners.
Waterhouse leads the strike rate table with her 22 winners coming from just 87 starters, just ahead of the Snowdens 17 wins from 87 starters.
O’Shea is the leading 2YO trainer by wins in NSW with the Lindsay Park stable on top in Victoria and South Australia.
Simon Miller leads in WA with 10 2YO winners. He shares fifth place on the national table with John Zielke, enjoying a terrific season as Queensland’s leading juvenile trainer with 10 wins.
Other trainers in the top 10 by winners are Queensland’s Krystle Johnson (nine wins), Darren Weir (8), John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes (8), and four equal on seven wins – Mick Price, Paul Perry, Tony Gollan and James Cummings.
At the end of the year, the results will highlight the fact again, that certain trainers are masters at training 2yo’s whilst the majority struggle at the art.
At the summation of this article, the fact remains that despite significantly less numbers than her peers,
GAI WATERHOUSE is still the trainer to be with for owners who want to access the mega millions in prizemoney on offer in juvenile racing.
Stats say you wouldn’t go anywhere else.
Dynamic Syndications are Gai Waterhouse’s PRIMARY SYNDICATOR. We invite you to join GAI and race some outstanding young horses to aim at the 2yo racing riches available in Australia.
Congratulations again to Chris Scholtz for a very insightful review of the facts and figures of the leading trainers in 2016.