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Godolphin's James Cummings has trained more stakes winners than Chris Waller this season but Sydney's premier trainer has come out on top in the final black-type race for the year.
The Waller-trained Seaway (NZ) (Ocean Park) has given the stable its fifth win from seven runnings of the Listed Winter Challenge (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
Cummings has ended the season with 61 stakes wins to Waller's 54 with the latter well ahead in the Group One count with 18.
While Waller is internationally famous for the deeds of world champion Winx (Street Cry), horses like Seaway are the backbone of his Sydney stable.
Syndicated by Denise Martin's Star Thoroughbreds, Seaway may never reach Group One heights but Waller believes he can continue to reap rewards for his owners with wins at the next tier down.
"He is a Group Two type of horse," Waller said.
"He could run in a race like the Shannon Stakes and maybe sneak into an Epsom Handicap as a rough chance but he is just below the top level.
"We pulled him out of a race here a couple of weeks ago because of the heavy track so he was four weeks between runs.
"But he has shown he goes well fresh."
Tommy Berry settled Seaway in a handy position and he strode to the front in the straight to hold off Goodfella (Snitzel) by a neck with $3.20 favourite Eckstein (I Am Invincible) another short neck third.
"The part that won him the race was the breather he had in the middle stages," Berry said.
"He was the class horse in the race, especially back on top of the ground and he showed that." -AAP