Racing: Waller tearing into his work

Kiwi trainer Chris Waller gets up close and personal with the outstanding Winx. Picture / NZ Racing Desk

Crying game nothing for Kiwi trainer to be ashamed of in Sydney’s brutal racing arena.

When the late, great Bart Cummings won the 1996 Melbourne Cup with Saintly he shed an uncharacteristic tear.

"Hayfever," said the laconic Cummings.

When Chris Waller, the boy from Foxton, first moved to train in Sydney and take himself to world renown in lightning time, crying after a major win was not unknown.

Remarkably, Waller seems to make it look easy, but nothing could toughen someone quicker than Sydney's brutal racing arena - perhaps the world's toughest.

Crying has become something from Waller's past - until Winx's astonishing win in last Saturday's Doncaster.

No, the squeezing of a tear was not apparent, but it was the closest the Kiwi will ever come without actually wiping his eyes.

The mouth was the giveaway. The bottom lip twisted both ways as Waller fought to stay in control as he spoke of his admiration for his galloping machine.

There is nothing wrong with crying. There are moments when, if a tear cannot be found, you shouldn't be in this game.

It's a major shame Waller and Winx's owners have decided to spell the mare and not back up for Saturday's masterpiece, the A$4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but the horse always has to come first.

Late on Saturday there will be no hayfever in the Randwick birdcage.

Leave the kids alone

Bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse, in his Sydney Morning Herald column, pointed out what is becoming all too obvious in many sporting fields - political correctness has gone mad.

He told of how last Saturday morning, Derby Day at Randwick, one hour before race one, a country bookmaker colleague was sitting in front of the main grandstand with his two teenage sons, all three studying their form guides.

Two officials approached and asked if the boys were old enough to bet. When told "no", they said they had to put their form guides away because it was a bad look.

Question: Where do they get these people from?

There was a time when teenagers reading form guides were applauded.

There must be a PC school we don't know about.

Walker slips up

Jockeys don't like stand-downs, even in the middle of winter.

Michael Walker had the worst possible luck to collapse at home on Sunday morning, ending in hospital and will miss the Criterion ride in Saturday's A$4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Walker was standing in his bathroom when he collapsed and struck his head on the floor.

Walker spent Sunday night in hospital and made the call himself to not ride the Sir Owen Glenn-owned Criterion. "I could have ridden at the weekend, but I felt it would be unfair to everyone."

Tommy Berry has picked up the mount on Criterion.

Walker is hugely disappointed because he was looking to this weekend to revive his career after being sidelined for more than two months with a major hip operation in December.