Sydney’s newest premiership winning trainer Chris Waller says he will not rest on his laurels, and is already looking at how he is going to defend his crown of Sydney’s leading trainer.

Chris Waller now turns his attention to winning back to back trainers premierships

Waller wrapped up the premiership with four winners at Rosehill on Saturday, to take his Sydney metropolitan total to 117 for the year.

“I think being the premiership trainer is something I will look back on. I guess if you offered it to me last year I would have thought ‘that’s great, I don’t need to do anything else,” Waller said.

“But you reassess your goals. It’s just the competitive nature in any jockey or trainer, you don’t really want to run second or third after winning it. Next season it will be the same again – it will be full bore right from the start.”

Waller migrated to Australia from New Zealand eleven years ago, with just a handful of horses. He now has one of the biggest stables in the country.

“We’ve had more runners but it still gives me a lot of satisfaction because we’ve got the team of owners, staff and horses to be able to win premierships which this season has been 117 wins and 117 happy moments,” Waller said.

Waller became just the fifth Sydney trainer to train 100 metropolitan winners in a season, exceeding even his wildest dreams.

“I didn’t expect to win a premiership, simple as that,” he said.

The highlights in the racing season for Waller were undoubtedly Danleigh’s triumph in the Group One Chipping Norton and Rangirangdoo’s emotional win in the Group One George Ryder Stakes. He also continued his habit of getting the best out of discarded international horses. My Kingdom of Fife (Queen Elizabeth Stakes) and Stand to Gain (Sydney Cup) are examples of how Waller has been able to turn around unwanted horses into Group One champions.

While Waller may have trained the most winners of the season, he pointed to Peter Snowden as the man who has had the standout season.

“You’ve got to take your hat off to Peter Snowden for winning all those Group One races. I’d easily swap places with what he has achieved in the last year and likewise Gai (Waterhouse), she has won the Caulfield Cup and still had a great season.”

2010/11 Premiership Winners