Top 10 Most Successful Australian Horse Racing Trainers

<p>Australian racing has been littered with some of the greatest horses and jockeys to ever grace the sport.&nbsp;</p> <p>But what about those superstars behind the scenes? What about the trainers?&nbsp;</p> <p>Well, Australia has also produced a number of expert trainers who have left an indelible mark on the world of racing.&nbsp;</p> <p>This list of colourful characters were and are some of the greatest minds in racing history and deserve to be celebrated.&nbsp;</p> <p>With Spring Carnival on the horizon, we’ve decided to take a trip down memory lane and take a look at some of the most successful Australian horse racing trainers in history.</p> <p>So, to kick off our Spring Carnival series, here are the Top 10 Most Successful Horse Racing Trainers in Australian History.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Bart Cummings&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Where else to start but with the “Cups King.” The late, great Bart Cummings is widely considered to be one of the best Australian horse racing trainers of all time.</p> <p>He was certainly one of the most prolific. You don’t get nicknamed “The Cups King” for nothing. Cummings won a staggering 12 Melbourne Cups as a trainer (an Australian record) as well as seven Caulfield Cups, five Cox Plates and four Golden Slippers.&nbsp;</p> <p>Overall, the horses he trained won 266 Group One races, the second most in Australian history. In 2001 Cummings was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and rightly so.&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> &nbsp;</p> <h3>T.J Smith</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>There’s only one trainer who has won more Group One races than Bart Cummings and that was Tommy J. Smith.</p> <p>The man they call T.J won a staggering 282 Group Ones in his day, which is still the all time record for an Australian trainer.&nbsp;</p> <p>These wins included seven Cox Plates, six Golden Slippers, four Caulfield Cups and two Melbourne Cups.&nbsp;</p> <p>Smith was also an inaugural inductee into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame alongside Cummings in 2001.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Lee Freedman</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Even if you aren’t a horse racing enthusiast (yet), you’ve most probably heard of the horse Makybe Diva.&nbsp;</p> <p>The world famous mare was the first horse to ever win three consecutive Melbourne Cups.&nbsp;</p> <p>Well, that horse of course had a trainer and his name is Lee Freedman. He trained Makybe for the final two wins of her Melbourne Cup hat trick.&nbsp;</p> <p>Freedman won a total of five Melbourne Cups as well as four Caulfield Cups, two Cox Plates and an unprecedented four consecutive Golden Slippers.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Gai Waterhouse&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>A (Water)household name, Gai Waterhouse was a trailblazer for women trainers. She is one of only two trainers in Australian history to have won six Golden Slippers, the other being her father, Tommy J. Smith.</p> <p>Yes, the innate ability to get the best out of a steed clearly runs in the family, as Gai Waterhouse is the daughter of the legendary T.J Smith.</p> <p>Not to be left in her fathers famous shadow, Waterhouse is the second ever female trainer to win the Melbourne cup and only two trainers both male and female have more Group One wins than her - Bart Cummings and of course her father.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Colin Hayes&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>South Australian Colin Hayes is up next, with the Hall of Famer boasting an impressive resume as a trainer.</p> <p>Not only did Hayes win the Golden Slipper, Caulfield Cup, two Australian Cups, two Melbourne Cups, three Cox Plates, four Victorian Derbies and four Adelaide Cups, but he also set a world record in 1982 as the first trainer to have trained 10 different individual winners all on the same day.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Ciaron Maher</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In racing there are two big things a trainer covets, wins and prize money. Well Ciaron Maher has a knack for locking up both in his career so far.</p> <p>Still relatively new on the racing scene in comparison to some of the veterans and legends on this list, Maher has been taking care of business for just over a decade.</p> <p>In that time he has racked up over 1400 wins and more than $30 million in prize money so far. You’d wager there is still plenty more of that to come for this elite trainer who has already won the Caulfield Cup twice.&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> &nbsp;</p> <h3>Peter and Paul Snowden&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Peter and Paul Snowden took working for your old man to another level. The father-son partnership is one of the most successful partnerships in Australian racing history.</p> <p>Together the duo have recorded over 800 wins and $117 million in earnings, with their highest profile win coming at the 2016 Golden Slipper Stakes.</p> <p>No need to borrow from Peter to pay Paul when your horses have won that much prize money.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>James Scoobie&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>TIme for a real throwback, known as the “Grandfather of Victorian Racing” James Scoobie was an innovative trainer all the way back in the 1880s.&nbsp;</p> <p>His success spilled into the 1900s too, with Scoobie winning his maiden Melbourne Cup at the turn of the century.</p> <p>He went on to win the Melbourne Cup a further three times and was one of the inaugural inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2001 along with Cummings, Hayes and Smith.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Tony McEvoy&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>One of the most highly respected and prolific trainers on the Australian racing scene is Tony McEvoy.</p> <p>With more than 30 years experience, McEvoy has seen and won it all. He’s produced winners in the nation’s biggest races including the Melbourne Cup and the Golden Slipper.&nbsp;</p> <p>In total he’s won over 1500 races total and his horses have earned more than $80 million in prize money. Not too shabby.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Chris Waller&nbsp;</h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Rounding out our list is Chris Waller, who technically could be classed as a Kiwi, but like Russell Crowe, we’re claiming him.&nbsp;</p> <p>Yes Waller was born in New Zealand, but he quickly established himself as a heavyweight of the Australian racing scene.</p> <p>Waller is of course the trainer of the legendary Winx, the superstar mare who won an unmatched four consecutive Cox Plates between 2015-2018.</p> <p>Achievements like this are never a fluke and Winx’s incredible run highlights Waller’s prowess as one of Australian racing’s elite trainers.</p>