Chris Waller: 'I was so emotional I couldn't get any words out - I was wrecked'

Racing writer of the year Lee Mottershead meets a very special Royal Ascot gues

At Ascot on Tuesday afternoon, Chris Waller will attempt to do something not seen for ten years. At the same celebrated place last Friday morning, the man who masterminded the career of wondermare Winx did something perhaps unprecedented on any British racecourse.

It is not yet 8am, yet in Waller world the day is already mature. When at home, Australian racing's leading trainer says goodbye to his bed at 2.58am six times a week, keen to ensure none of his staff are asked to work hours he would not confront himself. The Sydney-based New Zealander leads the team but is very much part of it, even here on the other side of the world, where right now he is causing battle-hardened British photographers to believe their own world has been turned briefly upside down.

Nature Strip and Home Affairs have just completed workouts up the last four furlongs of Ascot's sprint course, one to which they will return next week. Not since Black Caviar survived jockey Luke Nolen's late dalliance with danger in 2012 has an Australian-trained horse been successful at the royal meeting. In a bid to bring that run to an end, Nature Strip â€“ the joint second highest-rated horse in the world – will tackle the opening day's King's Stand Stakes, with the Coolmore-owned Home Affairs then set to strut his stuff in Saturday's Platinum Jubilee.

They are men on a mission. So, too, are the 49-year-old Waller and his young British assistant, Charlie Duckworth, who watched together from the grandstand steppings as the stable companions motored up Ascot's sun-drenched turf. Also enjoying the aperitif are some of Nature Strip's many syndicate owners, including former All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen, who knows all about pressure in the sporting arena. He also knows all about satisfying the media, something Waller has taken to another level in Australia. As Nature Strip and Home Affairs cool down in the pre-parade ring, the trainer brings some of that magic here.

With writers and snappers waiting to pounce, Waller asks work-riders Daniel Cremin and Stuart Williams to bring the two horses towards him. Then, without being requested to do anything by anyone, he orchestrates his own photoshoot, standing between the speedballs and giving the cameras exactly what they desired.

"This is a rarity in racing â€“ a trainer actually helping to organise the photos," says photographer Steven Cargill. It is not, however, a rarity in Sydney, where Waller has conducted countless similar morning media calls. "Eyes, eyes, Chris," asks the Racing Post's Edward Whitaker. Waller gives him eyes and then gives the journalists exactly the copy they needed.

"Thanks everyone for coming here this morning," says a smiling Waller to the press, adding for good measure: "If you need anything from us during the week, you'll find us very accessible."

Grateful and impressed, members of the British and Australian racing media bond over bacon, while Waller satisfies another request, this time for a one-on-one interview. Ascot's director of racing and communications Nick Smith kindly hands over the use of his office, where over 50 minutes Waller speaks with sincerity, insight and considerable raw emotion. He also details a Thursday shopping excursion to London that culminated in him adding to his formal wear collection.

"Charlie's dad, Mr Duckworth, is from a military background and came with a clear list of where we should go and what we should do," says Waller. "He also quickly informed me the top hat I brought here wouldn't measure up. It was an Australian top hat but Mr Duckworth advised me it was time for a change. We went to the right place and there were options, including a hat dating back to 1903 that was too expensive for an Aussie horse trainer. I went for a much cheaper version.

"I'll take them both home because they're great to bring out at parties. We just don't wear top hats in Australia. The kids think they're hilarious."

The kids will have a lot to laugh about on Tuesday, when Nature Strip â€“ a gelding with earnings of just under £10 million – lines up against America's Golden Pal. A lot of Australians are going to be wearing silly hats, most hopefully good enough to satisfy Duckworth snr.

"I actually planted the seed with Nature Strip's owners a few years ago but Covid meant there was no decision to make," Waller says. "To come all the way here is a big thing to ask an owner, particularly because we're very lucky with the prize-money we have in Australia. A race with equivalent prize-money to the King's Stand would come along three or four times a year. 

"Now is the right time to give it a go, though. It's important he goes back to Australia and hopefully continues his domination there, but it's also important he ticks a box here and gives his owners the trip of a lifetime."

Inevitably, one wonders why Waller has not made that trip more often. Zoustar would have been his first Royal Ascot raider in 2014 but for suffering an injury. One year later, Brazen Beau was beaten only half a length into second in what is now the Platinum Jubilee. Since that horse's subsequent defeat in the July Cup, Waller has had no runners in Britain, let alone Ascot. He is, by nature, cautious about international expeditions (more of that later) but also supremely resistant to ever raising his own expectations.

"When you come over here you daren't build yourself up â€“ if you did, the disappointment of not winning would be heartbreaking," he says. "If you simply see it as an honour to be here, you can have a great time. Whether or not I win this year or ten years from now, I just want to be part of it. To be able to rub shoulders with great trainers from around the world is going to be the top of the tree."

They should be thrilled to rub shoulders with him. Waller was brought up on New Zealand's North Island without any racing connections. His success has been fuelled by neither privilege nor family money. He saddled his first winner in 1997, moved with wife Stephanie to stables in Rosehill at the turn of the century and saddled the first of what are now 136 Group 1 winners in 2008, one of the most recent coming when the magnificent Verry Elleegant gave him a precious Melbourne Cup triumph in November.

His achievements are extraordinary â€“ and yet, when asked if relative to the likes of Aidan O'Brien, Sir Michael Stoute and Andre Fabre he feels within him an inferiority complex, the answer is shot through with frank humility.

"Yeah, there is," his facial expression changing as the conversation's intensity increases. "I have great respect for racing history. I don't let myself think I should be compared alongside those great trainers. I would just rather not think that way. It's easier not to. That's why I get emotional talking about it."

He really is now getting emotional. The sight of Waller fighting back tears, his voice choked, is one Australian racing fans know well. Speak to Waller after a major success and you'll find a man whose heart is worn on his sleeve. Nobody could ever accuse him of not caring.

"I just do the best I can," he says. "I have a great team. That's what makes me emotional. I wouldn't be anything without my team. It's as simple as that. I put it all together, and I work bloody hard doing it, with great support from my wife, but without the team I would be no-one."

He cannot bring himself to picture the people in that team watching Royal Ascot from Rosehill, nor how they would celebrate a momentous victory. "I just daren't," he says, knowing it would send him over the edge. I ask what else sets him off.

"History. Tradition," he says, stressing each word. "I also don't think in advance about winning big races. When the horse crosses the line in front, it hits you in the face. If that happens next week, it will be the first time I'll think about winning at Royal Ascot." There is a pause and then a "yeah" to emphasise the point.

"I can't control it," he goes on, composure regained. "I was the same at my wedding and I'll be the same at my kids' 21sts. I'm that type of person."

With remarkable timing, Sophie Baker, Waller's executive assistant and fellow Kiwi, pops her head around the door.

"Have you made him cry yet?" she asks.

In for a penny, in for a pound, it's time to bring up Winx, a horse whose fame in Australia was light years beyond anything even Frankel enjoyed here. Newspaper supplements and commemorative magazines marked her fourth Cox Plate and then April 2019 retirement, which came following 33 consecutive wins, 25 of them in Group 1 company. Waller was at the centre of it all, including the regular speculation over a trip to Royal Ascot that never happened.

"Right, another emotional trigger!" says Waller. He means it as well. The wobble is back in his voice. Winx is back in his mind.

"Those decisions that had to be made through her career still make me emotional," he admits. "I was constantly thinking I owed it to the rest of the world to bring Winx here. I really did feel that, but we also had to consider the risk of travel and placing her in such a confined area for 40 hours. 

"There were so many factors, one of them being that she was breaking all the records in Australia and expected to break even more, which she did. It would have been hard enough to bring a mare all this way but to then take her back and expect her to be as dominant would have been a lot to ask. Remember, she was an Australian icon, a sporting heroine.

"We did come close to running her in the Queen Anne two years before she retired. We had all the dates sorted out. I was even thinking about what the final field would have been and how the race would be run. The reality is we also had to think about the risks involved in coming here. Horses do get sick when travelling."

Winx devotees on both sides of the world have no doubts she would have dazzled. Waller respects those who think differently, the non-believers. He also makes no apologies. 

"I have no regrets about her career, none at all, but in a perfect world, she would have come here and dominated, not just at Royal Ascot but maybe also in France, America, Dubai and Hong Kong.

"How good was she? I don't know because she wasn't fully tested. Whatever the bar, no matter how high it was placed, she rose to it. She passed every challenge we set her."

Anyone who spent time with Waller during the Winx journey, or even just watched one of the post-race interviews, will know how much it all meant to him, how much of himself he gave to her. Three years have passed since she last competed. Has he recovered?

"Yes, I have, but it took me a long time. Both Hugh Bowman and myself were mentally drained. I was asked to speak at a public function three or four weeks after she retired. I was so emotional that I couldn't get any words out. Genuinely, I was wrecked. Six months down the track I was a lot better and 12 months down the track I was better again. If you asked me now, I would say I'm pretty good.

"For four years I woke up and thought about Winx. When I had a bit of downtime I thought about Winx. Every time she went off for a little holiday there was a feeling of relief. For four years I was constantly thinking about Winx. Even through her first year of retirement, I would find myself thinking: 'What am I going to do with Winx today?' Then I'd remember she was no longer in training.

"I still see her once every six months. She never needed fuss and she always liked her own space but I think she now warms to attention more than she did. She hasn't actually had a baby yet. That's going to be a pretty emotional time as well." 

The quivering voice tells you he means it. The guy needs a break. To a small extent, that's what he is having on this short trip to Britain. In particular, he is loving the chance to work from Lambourn, where his two representatives have been finishing their morning exertions before any of the horses trained by host Charlie Hills have left their boxes.

"The way horses are trained in Britain, Ireland and France is very special," says Waller. "People have so much more time than we do. Training tracks close at 8am each day in Australia. There are strings here that are only just starting at that time."

Between here and there, things are different. Some things, however, are the same, not least the ever greater public focus on animal welfare, linked to which controversial heightened testing procedures were introduced for international horses being sent to the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

"I understand why they acted, 100 per cent," insists Waller. "We have to eliminate injuries as much as possible and we need to get across the message that, as a sport, we do everything we can. We have to continue to make racing safer. We also have to deal with the social challenges and explain that we're a responsible sport. 

"I think we've got to respect the opinions of people who have different views and we also have to move with the times, so that we're socially accepted by as many people as possible. We are never going to be perfect, but we have to respect the fact there are other voices out there, and we need to work with those people the best we can. If we don't, we might find ourselves in a tricky spot.

"On the whole, racehorses are loved more than any other pet. My staff care for our horses in a way that is equal to any cat or dog lover anywhere in the world. They cherish these horses. They don't care if Nature Strip or Home Affairs win at Royal Ascot. They just want them to come home safe."

Waller is a wise man, enormously likeable and impressive in every regard. 

"I do feel I'm representing Australasia here, for sure I do," he says. "So many people back home are proud of our racing, our horse people, our jockeys, our strappers, our heritage. 

"As a stable, we came very close with Brazen Beau, but there was no disappointment, even to this day. It was a huge honour to finish second. This time we have two horses to fly the flag. They have the right credentials to be here but it would be a huge relief if they ran competitively. I really just want to see them fighting out the finish. Winning would be a bonus."

He means it too. Waller's modesty is completely genuine but wholly unwarranted. There will not be a trainer at Royal Ascot, nor one anywhere in the world, to whom he should feel inferior.