Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott mounting a serious challenge to Chris Waller’s Sydney premiership dominance

Gai Waterhouse believes she can reclaim the Sydney trainers’ title with Adrian Bott and end 13 years of Chris Waller domination.

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have a three-win lead over Chris Waller in the Sydney premiership after two months.

Can Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott do the unthinkable and bring Chris Waller’s reign as Sydney’s premier trainer to an end?

The 2023-24 season is just over two months old and the premiership rankings have an unexpected and unusual look at the top of the table.

Waterhouse and Bott have made a flying start to the season with 23 wins and lead Waller by a three-win margin.

Waller has dominated the Sydney premiership for 13 consecutive years and usually by this early stage of the season he has already opened up a commanding lead.

Waterhouse, a seven-time premier trainer between 1997 and 2009, believes Tulloch Lodge has a realistic chance of reclaiming the title this season.

“I can’t see why not,’’ Waterhouse replied when asked if they could win the Sydney title. “Adrian is training like a demon.’’

But TAB’s racing expert and price assessor Tim Ryan has a very definite opinion on the Sydney training premiership battle and has refused to even put up a market on the likely outcome this season.

“Chris Waller will retain the premiership and do it easily despite trailing after two months,’’ Ryan said.

“At carnival time it is harder to dominate and since the start of the season, Gai and Adrian’s winning strike-rate has been absolutely phenomenal but it must drop at some stage.

“I’ve got no doubt the Chris Waller stable, with its sheer consistency and weight of numbers, will regain the lead, particularly during the summer and winter months where he is so strong.’’

Bott admitted the stable depth at Tulloch Lodge has never been stronger but he has a realistic take on his premiership ambitions.

“It’s going to be hard,’’ Bott said.

“We have the numbers and runners to be competitive but it is hard to keep this momentum going all season.

“The stable has had more winners and runners to start the season than we traditionally have but there will be times when we won’t have as many starters.

“We had 19 runners last Saturday at Randwick and that was a bit of an anomaly. Our strike-rate has been great but over summer and winter is where we will find it harder.’’

Hoo Ya Mal leads the Tulloch Lodge charge at Rosehill on Saturday when he contests the Hill Stakes. Picture: Getty Images

At Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, Waterhouse and Bott have only three runners in three separate races while Waller has 12 entries across five races.

Tulloch Lodge has promising English import Hoo Ya Mal lining up in the Group 2 $2m Hill Stakes (1900m), Royal Tribute in the Group 2 $300,000 Roman Consul Stakes (1200m) and The Little Pumper in the $500,000 Tapp-Craig (1400m).

All three are rated at single figure odds for but Hoo Ya Mal is the shortest at $4.40 with TAB.

But the five-year-old gelding is confronted by a classy field including a quartet of Waller-trained runners – $3.70 favourite Montefilia and her stablemates Hinged ($10), No Compromise ($41) and Magical Lagoon ($51).

Hoo Ya Mal, a Group 3 winner in England, has been unplaced in three starts since joining the Waterhouse-Bott stable but his last start seventh in the 7 Stakes behind Think It Over, Zaaki and Fangirl is a strong pointer for the Hill Stakes.

“We have been working on Hoo Ya Mal settling better in his races which he is doing now,’’ Bott said.

“If things went his way in both starts this spring, he would have been right in the finish.

“I think he has run good races without being beaten far in conditions that weren’t ideal for him. He’s getting out to a more suitable trip on Saturday.’’

Bott expects the talented Royal Tribute to run an improved race in the Roman Consul Stakes while The Little Pumper will race on speed and take running down in the Tapp-Craig.

Originally published as Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott mounting a serious challenge to Chris Waller’s Sydney premiership dominance