Chris Waller closes in on 100 national winners before New Year Raising the bar: Runaway premiership leader Chris Waller. Chris Waller has had a remarkable year. The statistics do not lie. He broke Tommy Smith and Gai Waterhouse's record for Sydney wins in a season and was leading trainer in the country. Add the 14 group 1 winners for the calendar year and it is simply amazing. These triumphs continued his seemingly endless upward spiral since he came to Sydney more than a decade ago. He is a real success story but he remains humble about it. "If you asked me four years ago if I could go better next year I would have said 'probably not,'" Waller said. I just go out and do my best and we have had some success. We have a system that works. He is well on way to outdoing his most successful season this term, already banking nearly $9 million in stakes for the first four months of the season after earning $17.2 million last season. Horses such as Zoustar and Boban have the stable striking at 20 per cent in black-type races for the season, adding to his clients' coffers. However, for every good run, there is a run of outs. In recent times, Waller favourites have not had the best of luck. Of his past 21 city favourites, only Perplexity has won, on November 29. No stable has had more favourites in that period and it is a bump in the road for the Waller yard that earned the respect of punters for its consistency. "The system we have is set up to have consistency from our horses," Waller said. We run a lot of first threes and first fives as well as getting our winners. We are a stable that focuses on prizemoney and having our horses run well every time they go around, and hold their form. We have quite a few stayers that take a couple of runs to come to their best, but it is about longevity, rather than gutting a horse to get a win quickly. It that period, Waller's favourites have run 12 placings, which shows the wheels have not completely fallen off. It might also be that Waller runners attract punters' attention for the simple fact that they perform at the right level. "Some of them do start shorter than I think they should," he said. I think Calming Influence is probably an example of that on Saturday. She is taking on the older mares at the end of long preparation, and in my opinion would be a $5 shot but will start close to favourite. If you look at her last run, she got a 10 out of 10 ride and meets stronger company on Saturday. There are plenty of things that will make it tougher for her on Saturday. But she has a very good jockey on her again [Nash Rawiller] and will run a good race. Calming Influence is an example of Waller's success. She has had four runs this preparation for two wins and two thirds and has not put in a bad run. The facts say Waller's run of outs with favourites will not continue. Overall this season, his strike rate with the punters' pick is 32 per cent, says Racingandsports.com.au. Breaking it down further, his stable runners starting $2 or less strike at 67 per cent, while between $2 to $6 SP it is 25 per cent. The strike rates are the same as Waterhouse, whose stable has built a reputation of winning with favourites. Calming Influence and Waller's Pentometer and Made To Order are early favourites for Saturday's Rosehill card. Another interesting runner for Waller is two-year-old Tantrum Testa, which remains in next month's Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast. He has had two runs, finishing fifth and fourth, but is standing up to a preparation. "He has got better with each run and will see how he goes on Saturday," Waller said. Waller is keen to be the first trainer to 100 winners this season and should do this before the new year with plenty of racing in the festive season. He sits on 93 winners at a strike rate of 16 per cent. It bodes well for beating the 224 winners he had in 2012-13.