Waller hits out at Winx detractor
Champion Kiwi expat horse trainer Chris Waller has labelled English commentator Matt Chapman ‘‘a dickhead’’ after Chapman’s diatribe about Winx only ‘‘beating fairly moderate horses’’.
Chapman, who admitted he flew in to watch Black Caviar for a day and was looking forward to seeing Winx attempt to win a fourth Cox Plate on Saturday, was forthright in his opinion at the Cox Plate barrier draw on Tuesday.
‘‘It’s hard when you’ve got a whole room of Australians . . . to tell you exactly what it’s like back home with Winx,’’ Chapman said. ‘‘Back home we feel Winx is beating fairly moderate horses.’’
He drew a comparison from overseas raider Best Solution’s win in the Caulfield Cup on Saturday.
‘‘Slightly it was proved in the result we saw with Best Solution, where all the horses Winx had been beating were stuffed out of sight. Although it was a completely different type of race.’’
Winx has actually beaten 67 Group I winners in her remarkable career with her 3 1⁄2-year winning streak standing at 28 heading into the Cox Plate.
Her trainer Waller, who is usually measured, shot back on Melbourne radio yesterday.
‘‘I’ve taken those comments in and I was very, very surprised and disappointed to the fact that I think he’s a bit of a dickhead for saying it really,’’ Waller said. ‘‘You’re in a foreign country, you [should] have a little bit of respect.
‘‘You might go back and say it back at home, but you’re invited to be at a breakfast, sure you’ve got to speak your mind and things like that and maybe his comments were taken the wrong way.
‘‘It’s a bit harsh to say over the past four years, or 31⁄2 years, that she’s been winning, he’s basically saying every horse that she’s beaten is rubbish.
‘‘Well that just puts a mockery on Australian racing, which is regarded as close to the best in the world and I’m sure our punters and followers of racing would be disgusted by those comments.
‘‘For him to stand up and say that, it’s just utter nonsense. He’s just trying to make a name for himself and, maybe everybody is a bit different, but it’s pretty disappointing really.’’
Chapman admitted it was hard to line up Winx with the top rated runners in England, which is basically because their best horses don’t travel at all, and he sought to play down the achievements of those that do.
‘‘The only link we kind of have to Winx is through Highland Reel and everyone will say ‘well Winx beat Highland Reel’ but you have to remember when she beat Highland Reel, he was a very young horse, he’d hardly done anything at that stage,’’ Chapman said.
‘‘It was only actually in his next start, he went to Hong Kong and then he became a Breeders’ Cup winner etcetera that Highland Reel progressed as he became a four-year-old.’’
Chapman said that Winx wasn’t the best horse in the world, daring to say Cracksman’s win in the Champion Stakes last Saturday, where he won by six lengths against hardly again a vintage field was the best performance of the year.
He believes Godolphin raider Benbatl will cause an upset in the Cox Plate on Saturday.