By Chris Roots
If the Chris Waller show, starring Winx, has been the smash hit of the year, the Darren Weir story has been just as compelling even if it has not quite dominated the headlines in the same way.
Waller and Weir have dominated racing in their respective home states in 2016 and their figures for the year make for an interesting comparison.
Chasing 400: Darren Weir is dominating racing in Victoria.Credit: Vince Caligiuri
Waller once again led the group 1 standings, with eight wins, six from Winx, and 21 other placings from 102 runners. Weir had seven wins and nine placings from only 48 group 1 runners. His model of working through Victorian country meetings into the metropolitan area has delivered 377 winners for the year.
He might not have had a winner yet in Sydney and he doesn't have the firepower of the Waller yard at the top level but when he gets the right horse, he finds the right race, as he did with Stratum Star in the Kingston Town Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
Even more remarkable is that Weir comes home with a winner 56 per cent of the time he goes to the races, which has resulted in more than $20 million in stakes this year alone.
Waller has a different model, which is focused mainly on metropolitan and provincial racing, and his winning rate when he goes to the races is 49 per cent. He went through the $150 million stakes barrier for his career on Saturday.
There has, however, been a clear focus shift as Waller continues to evolve his stable. He used to depend on older horses for the majority of his winners. In 2016, Waller has had 100 three-year-old winners as he develops a better class of stock coming through his yard.
He is more active at the sales and has a better quality of horse in his stable. Weir is only a couple of years behind in that sense.
The convergence of the pair is only going to continue in the next couple of years as both will get more opportunities with the top-quality horses in their system. It is a rivalry that is just beginning.
Whyte's costly mistake
Champion Hong Kong jockey Douglas Whyte took a look at the end of Saturday's Kingston Town Stakes, an unforgivable sin. Desperately trying to hold on for a second group 1 on Scales Of Justice, Whyte's head came up in about the final 20 metres as if he thought the race was over. He went again on Scales Of Justice, which was nailed on the line by Stratum Star.
It was a moment of hesitation. It looked ugly.
Whether it cost him the race is hard to say but the book will show Stratum Star won the group 1. Whyte, a 13-time champion jockey of Hong Kong, pleaded not guilty to a charge of not riding his horse to the line.
Perth Stewards have adjourned the matter, so Scales Of Justice's trainer Lindsey Smith, who said he was happy with Whyte's ride, and connections can view the footage, which isolates Scales Of Justice.
If Whyte is found guilty it should and would be a hefty suspension.
Stewards' bid
Racing NSW stewards continue to try to get warned-off punter Anthony Gardiner to appear before them in the James McDonald betting investigation.
Chief steward Marc Van Gestel has been in contact with Gardiner's legal representatives about coming to the inquiry and has not got a response.
A date has yet to be set for the hearing of McDonald's charge of having an interest in a bet on Astern at his debut last year.
Also, stewards are still waiting for a second sample from the Chris Waller horse, which returned an irregularity to ice.
Van Gestel is hopeful of getting both matters completed before Christmas.
Winning bonanza
Tim Clark led the country with 22 wins in November, which makes Jeff Lloyd's record of 11 winners in the past two meetings in Brisbane seem almost unbelievable.
Lloyd rode a record seven winners at the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday then backed it up with another four at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Not a bad effort for a jockey who has returned from a stroke.
He won on Winning Rupert for Bjorn Baker, which looks the one to beat in next month's Magic Millions Guineas.
Clark was not left that far behind as he had another winning treble at Rosehill, two in photos, which were bob-of-the-head finishes. It just shows that when your luck is in, your luck is in.
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