Chris Waller at least provided Brenton Avdulla with enough horsepower to end a lean trot in the saddle even if the champion trainer was unsure if a recent pep talk jolted the frustrated jockey into form.
Avdulla rode two winners for Waller at Randwick on Saturday as part of a treble that ended a long run of outs.
But Avdulla was the talk of the jockeys’ room for another reason because he sported a new blonde hairstyle as he rode Achiever, Princess Cordelia and Dealmaker to victories.
It is a stark contrast to his usual look and enough for Waller to share a light-hearted insight into Avdulla’s trials and tribulations since the jockey’s last Sydney winner on Anzac Day.
“He said to me a couple of weeks ago, I can’t take a trick and I said don’t change anything,” Waller said.
“But he didn’t take that (advice). He changed his hair.”
Waller has been one of Avdulla’s biggest supporters, supplying the rider with his most recent of seven Group One wins when Come Play With Me took out last year’s Metropolitan.
But losing streaks in the racing game are bad for business and six weeks without a winner was starting to weigh heavily on Avdulla’s mind.
“I said to my manager, if I get to zero (wins) and a hundred (rides), I’ll retire back to the provincials,” Avdulla said.
“I’ve obviously had a good day … it was unexpected.
“I thought a couple of them could run well but it’s always nice to get a winner, or two or three.”
Avdulla rode Achiever and Dealmaker for Waller while the middle leg of his treble, Princess Cordelia, comes from the stable of young country trainer Mitchell Beer.
Beer wondered if he should follow Avdulla’s lead in a bid to add to a recent stretch of good form from runners out of his Albury yard on the NSW-Victoria border.
“If bleaching your hair gets you 3 x winners at Randwick … then sign me up,” Beer posted on social media.
Avdulla iced his day on Dealmaker.
“I hadn’t ridden a city winner for about six weeks and I had someone tell me the other day that I was about none for 80,” Avdulla said
“They said, ‘are you disappointed?’ and I said, ‘not really, disappointing is when you’re going to the pub and the Uber driver goes the wrong way. That’s disappointing.
“This is just racing. We all have our runs, our ins and outs and you’ve just got to keep turning up.”
Or changing the colour of your hair.
