Chris Waller now has 99 wins in Sydney for the season

Talented trainer Chris Waller has edged even closer to training 100 winners for the season after two of his horses won at Warwick Farm yesterday.

Waller now has 99 winners to his name and is hoping he will be able to clinch his first ever century, a feat he never could manage as a young cricket player.

“I was a self-confessed good cricketer but I never made 100,” Waller said.

“Never even looked like getting near it.

“I was never even stranded in the nervous nineties.

“I was more of a bowler, so I didn’t get that much opportunity with the bat.

“So this will make up for all those years.”

Waller is hoping that unlike his cricketing days, his journey into the century club will be a quick one.

“We’re well into the nervous 90s,” he said.

“Hopefully I don’t get stranded.”

The trainer is hopeful that he can gain the final win at Saturday’s Rosehill meeting.

“If we don’t do it on Saturday then hopefully we’ll do it next Wednesday,” Waller said.

He has given the all-important rides to jockey Damien Oliver.

“Glyn Schofield is suspended, Hugh Bowman is overseas, Corey Brown is in Brisbane, Christian Reith is up there, too, Tim Clark was originally going to be up there and our options were looking thin,” Waller said.

“Damien has ridden for the stable with success in the past and we offered him a nice group of horses.”

Waller said that he is still not willing to find a regular stable jockey.

“I might not be a jockey’s best friend but it is working for me,” he said.

“I’ve always had a policy to get the best jockeys; even dating back to the early days I tried to get Larry Cassidy to ride my horses.

“He was winning the premiership when I first brought horses here, and then Darren Beadman when he was at the top, too.

“He would always be our first phone call and it was amazing how many times he would ride for us.

“For a young trainer to use those jockeys it is amazing how owners listen to them, and then owners give the trainer respect, too.

“If you have a jockey like Darren Beadman or a Nash Rawiller saying the horse is no good, they listen.

“If a second-tier rider says it, it doesn’t have the same impact.

“Jockeys, like trainers, come in and out of form and I don’t want to get in the situation where I am stuck with one rider.”

If Waller makes 100 wins this season he will join an exclusive club that includes only the late Tommy Smith, Brian Mayfield-Smith, Gai Waterhouse and John Hawkes.