He is already a champion apprentice, but the first 18 days of November have taken Tyler Schiller from a promising rider to a go-to option for Sydney stables.
Schiller has the calmness that the best jockeys possess on the track, and he has converted that nature into a winning run which could set up another apprentice title, even though he is only 11 wins from losing his claim.
Tyler Schiller will look for another feature win on A Very Fine Red in The Warra on Saturday.Credit:Getty
The biggest advantage in Sydney racing is Schiller’s 1½ kilogram claim as he continues to make the difference on horses in and out of the market. He is the only jockey to ride at least one winner at each of Sydney’s metropolitan meetings this month.
“He has a huge advantage at the moment with 1½ kilos because he is riding like a senior,” Schiller’s master, Mark Newnham, observed. “Usually apprentices need the claim to be competitive; he doesn’t.”
“The biggest challenge for him is coming when that claim goes, because people drop off you at that point, but the way he is going at the moment it won’t matter.
“I have told him he is a real chance of winning the apprentice title again. His riding has gone to another level in the past couple of months, and what you are seeing in November is a result of that.”
It has also been very profitable for the 24-year-old, who won just under $5 million in prizemoney last season to establish himself in Sydney. He has earned more than $1.3 million in stakes in November and is fourth in the premiership with 19 wins.
This month he has won the Little Dance on Dream Runner, The Beauford on King Frankel, was runner-up in the Big Dance on Cisco Bay and third in The Hunter on Gravina for Godolphin.
“I haven’t changed anything. I have just kept doing my own thing and the same things I was before,” Schiller said. “It shocks me that I have been going that well. I knew I was riding winners and a couple of nice horses and getting the job done.
“I’m getting a lot better rides but I’m not stressing over the rides as much as I used too. I’m fairly laid back normally away from the track, but I’m just going out and doing my job on it now.”
Schiller could join an elite band of apprentices if he can continue at the same rate. Only Tommy Berry, Tye Angland and Hugh Bowman have ridden 50 or more winners and won the Sydney apprentice premiership this century.
He speaks quietly but comfortably about his next goals.
“I want to outride my claim or win a group 1 next,” Schiller said. “The claim is probably going to come first.
“I’m out of my time in April next year, but if I have a chance of winning the apprentice title again I will extend it to the end of the season.”
A Riverina lad, Schiller has returned home in the past 12 months to win the Albury Cup on Harmony Rose and the Wagga Town Plate on Front Page, which also won the Kosciuszko with in October to add to a mighty haul in the past couple of months.
After winning on King Frankel last weekend, Schiller will look for another feature win for Newnham on A Very Fine Red in The Warra on Saturday. He rode the horse to fifth in benchmark company at Rosehill before she went and won the listed Alinghi Stakes.
“She is a lovely horse. I rode her first up here and she didn’t like being inside of horses,” Schiller said. “Once I found clear air on her outside horses in the final 200m she was a different horse to what she was in the first half of the straight.
“It was no surprise to see her go to Melbourne and win that when she got a clear crack at them.
“She is in good form on a good track and in a race with plenty of speed which will really suit her. I’ll be better for the riding her at Rosehill.”
A Very Fine Red is a $10 chance for The Warra, where last year’s runner-up, Malkovich, is the $3.80 favourite.
