Good Trainers Can Come From Anywhere

Chris Waller, the dominant trainer in Australia since 2010, is in one sense the odd man out among the three Australian-based trainers with runners for the 2015 Longines Hong Kong International Races Dec. 13 at Sha Tin.

 

Waller, Australia's champion trainer by number of group I winners in recent years, is a New Zealander who moved to Sydney 15 years ago. But that's not the oddity. Rather it is that his father had no direct involvement in racing whereas his contemporaries from Australia, David Hayes and Kris Lees, followed in the footsteps of successful training fathers.

 

But that certainly doesn't make him unique among the great horsemen assembled for the Sunday's four international races, all group I events, as there is a similar mix of backgrounds among the trainers from Europe and the Great Britain.

 

British trainer Sir Michael Stoute's father was the chief of police of Barbados (Stoute was knighted in 1998 for his services to tourism in Barbados), whereas Richard Hannon and Freddy Head, of course, come from famous racing families.

 

Andre Fabre is the son of a diplomat and graduated from university with a law degree before turning to racing. Fellow Frenchman Mikel Delzangles similarly does not come from a racing background. 

 

"My father was a banker, nothing to do with racing," said Delzangles, whose principal racing tutelage came under Alain de Royer-Dupre, whose father was the director of the French National Stud.

 

Similarly, two other Hong Kong competitors Aidan O'Brien and Ed Lynam honed their training skills with top Irish trainer Jim Bolger, who prepared the 2004 Hong Kong Cup (HK-I) winner Alexander Goldrun.

 

"My father was a dairy farmer and mum a school teacher," Waller said, "and I pretty much spent every day of my life on the farm until I moved to Sydney. My grandfather did breed and race a few horses, which was the only strong family connection to racing."

 

Waller began his career with horses in Foxton in New Zealand with trainer Paddy Busuttin and, in a remarkable coincidence, Waller and Lees traveled together as young strappers—to  Hong Kong—to prepare two horses contesting the 1996 Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

 

Waller was in Hong Kong with the Busuttin-trained Sam McGuire, who finished seventh, one spot ahead of Potential Star who was trained by Lees' father Max, the trainer of number of top-class horses, including Australian champion 2-year-old of the 1970s Luskin Star.

 

Interestingly, both Hayes and Lees concede that their racing and training education was narrowed by the family connection but that has not stopped them carving out their own successful careers.

 

"Dad was really the only major influence on my career," said Lees, while Hayes said he learned the ropes from his father and older brother Peter. "It was mainly dad, but Peter was 13 years older and he had a big influence on me as well. The plan was that I would go and spend some time with Dick Hern in England but dad became too unwell to continue training and that's when I took over." 

 

Hayes' father, Colin, pioneered overseas investment in Australian racing, especially from the Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates and broke the mold by establishing a successful training base outside the metropolitan area that produced 5,333 winners, including 524 stakes winners and also created a highly successful breeding operation.

 

David Hayes subscribes to the popular, contemporary modus operandi that aspiring young trainers are well served by broadening their horizons around the world. "My boys have the time to do this," he said. Hayes' son Ben has enjoyed a stint with John Gosden in Newmarket this year.

 

"While trainers' sons may have had only the one key person guiding them, I think it's probably fair to say that most people tend to have only one key mentor irrespective of how they come into the game," Hayes said.