By J A McGrath Chris Waller was acclaimed an all-time great on the Australian turf when he chalked up his 200th Group 1 winner last month but now he hopes to repeat an experience that four years ago brought him worldwide fame. Waller is preparing to unleash his latest female heroine on Royal Ascot — the aptly-named JOLIESTAR  — in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, over 6f, on Saturday 20th June.  It will be his fourth runner at the meeting he first visited back in 2015. But hasn’t the multiple Sydney champion already achieved fame through the exploits of the incredible mare Winx?  After all, it was no mean feat to have trained her to win 37 of 43 starts, her last 33 in succession. However, Waller, 53, who spent his formative years at Foxton, a small town in the North Island of his native New Zealand, before heading to Australia, is in no doubt the win of Nature Strip in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2022 is one that gets top bracket ranking among his thousands of winners. “Looking back, it’s hard to separate those big wins, there’s very little between them,” he points out. “But in terms of worldwide recognition, you could argue it was my stable’s greatest win. “In terms of the races we’ve won, there have been many special days. That said, Nature Strip winning at Royal Ascot was just a top day for me, and that would be the same for the owners, the jockey, and my team,” he reflects. The powerfully-built chestnut gelding sprinting clear of his rivals is a vivid memory, and so too is the drama created by the riderless Khaadem ‘threatening,’ causing him to quicken again late.  He won by four and a half lengths, but James McDonald later revealed he was unaware that the horse he sensed approaching on his right in the finish had no jockey. Waller’s Royal Ascot adventure started 11 years ago with Brazen Beau in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes.  Ridden by Australian Craig Williams, the sleek black sprinter raced solo on the stands side and was only cut down in the last few strides by Frankie Dettori on the Wesley Ward-trained Undrafted, on the opposite side of the track, who scrambled home by half a length. But Waller has no regrets.  “If you ran the race again, he might win it.  But I don’t think like that…ever. We had him cherry ripe that day, that’s what I look back on. It was a great achievement. I still remember him parading before the race. “I was so proud to see him walking around the paddock at Royal Ascot as picture perfect, and he raced accordingly.  It acted as the springboard to having the appetite for more,” he explains. So, Joliestar is the one chosen to carry on the Waller connection with Britain’s most historic and famous race meeting, and it was no easy task satisfying the trainer’s rigorous guidelines to be selected to make the trip half way around the world. Waller is quite clear on what is required.  “In my mind, to be considered, the horse has to prove itself.  First, they must be a Group 1 horse, and winning down the straight at Flemington in Melbourne, our only straight course in Australia, is important. “If you can tick those boxes on the CV, it’s a big help because it’s a long way to travel if you’re not up to the level required,” he adds. Clearly, Joliestar is the right horse.  A daughter of Zoustar, she’s won 10 of her 21 starts.  To underline her class, she landed the Group 1 Thousand Guineas, over 1m, at three, and later the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap, over the straight 6f, at four, followed by her most recent campaign in the Australian autumn, in which she registered a winning hat-trick, culminating in the coveted Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes in Sydney. “Also, she’s a mature horse, a five-year-old now.,” he stresses.  “She’s never been in more consistent form,  and she’s always been a Group 1 horse.  She’s won the right races. She’s won a Newmarket and also the weight-for-age ‘TJ’ at her most recent start. I think she’s the right horse to bring, and hopefully on the world stage, she gets the chance to prove that,” the trainer adds. Since arriving in Britain, Joliestar has been based at Charlie Hills’s stables at Lambourn. Waller prefers the relative tranquility of the surroundings for any horses he sends, and he believes he’s found the perfect place. Joliestar is owned by Sir Brendan and Lady Jo Lindsay, of the famous Cambridge Stud in New Zealand. The well-known Lindsay colours were carried to Royal Ascot success by Hello Youmzain in 2020 in the same race targeted by Joliestar, but then known as the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Asked whether this is an all New Zealand assault on the Royal meeting — owners, trainer and jockey McDonald are all Kiwis — Waller was at his diplomatic best.  “We’ve got to be very careful here.  Australia is home for me.  I’m a proud New South Welshman but New Zealand will always be my grassroots,” he points out. “Anyway, we haven’t got a New Zealand horse, we’ve got an Australian horse,” he adds. Prizemoney for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes is £1m, making it (with the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes) the joint-largest purse over the five days. “But it’s not about the prizemoney,” Waller explains. “It’s like Wimbledon. Most tennis players wouldn’t ever worry about the prizemoney, if you could win it. It’s what it does to put you on the world stage.” When Waller won the Doomben Cup with Birdman in Brisbane last month, he joined Bart Cummings and Tommy (TJ) Smith as the only trainers to have won 200 Group 1s on the Australian turf.  But neither of those icons won a race at Royal Ascot.  Waller is treading a different path and making a success of it.