‘I’d be filthy’: The key call that helped Schiller overcome rocky road to Everest

3 hours ago 3

By Craig Kerry

October 16, 2025 — 5.00pm

After Briasa announced himself as a potential Everest horse with victory in the $1 million The Hunter (1300m) at Newcastle 11 months ago, jockey Tyler Schiller made a crucial call.

Michael Hawkes, the Sydney face of the training team comprising his father, Hall of Famer John, and Melbourne-based brother Wayne, was in New Zealand when their grey defied a wide gate and a three-wide run without cover to take his record to six wins in seven starts.

Tyler Schiller and Briasa win the Premiere Stakes at Randwick.

“After he won the Hunter, he actually rang me on the way home,” Michael said of Schiller.

“He just said, ‘Look, I need to ride more for you. You know where you’re at, you know what you’re about, you’re team people, you’re easy to ride for’.

“Everyone thinks we’re hard to ride for, but it’s not that, it’s the fact that when you’re trying to get the product there every time, you want execution, you want perfection and that’s what we try to be.

“He’s come on board and he’s great, he’s just taken it all in his stride.”

The commitment from Schiller, the 2021-22 champion Sydney apprentice, has helped him through a rocky ride on the way to his first chance in the richest race on turf.

They won the group 1 TJ Smith Stakes in April and Schiller was thrilled when Briasa secured an Everest slot in early May, but two-and-a-half weeks later he feared he would miss the spring after a fall at Canterbury. He was thrown from a horse pre-race and landed on his back, suffering a compression fracture in his T8 vertebra. He spent almost three months out and took more than 30 rides to find his first winner back, but the Hawkes team stuck solid.

“I thought if that’s what’s going to knock me out of the spring, I’d be filthy,” Schiller said of the fall.

“So I’ve been very lucky that it wasn’t a major injury. I bounced back fairly quickly and it was probably good I got a couple of months under the belt again before I got into the carnival.

“I think if I went in off what I was doing two months ago when I first came back, I’d be pretty ring rusty and pretty disappointed with myself that I was going to ride in the biggest race in Australia and not be at my best.

“It’d be a nice bounce back [to win the Everest]. It’d be great to do it for the Hawkes team, the owners – they’re great people, the Johnsons – and he’s a one of a kind horse.

“The Hawkes team put me on a bit through my apprenticeship and I didn’t really start off well, so it’s good that it’s still going because probably the first 20 rides, I couldn’t get a winner. But once the ball started rolling, we started to click with each other.

“Although there can be up-and-down times, it’s nice to enjoy the good times.”

Briasa has been at the heart of the good times and heads into Saturday’s $20 million spectacle at Randwick in top form, after winning the group 2 Premiere Stakes (1200m) there two weeks ago.

Wayne Hawkes embraces Tyler Schiller after Nepotism’s Champagne Stakes win in April.

“He’s flying. His second-up run was fantastic,” said Schiller, who turned 27 on Wednesday.

“He blew out a bit first-up, but second-up I didn’t feel any signs of weakness. He felt like he was still powering through the line. I didn’t have to ask too much of him and he’s definitely in the right headspace. He’s feeling and looking terrific.”

A draw in 10 has not helped the chances of Briasa, which was out to $15 (Sportsbet) on Thursday. Schiller hoped to get a cart across with Overpass, in nine, and find a handy spot with cover in the first four. Hawkes was confident Briasa would challenge with luck in running.

“It’s not the draw we wanted,” Hawkes said.

“I would have loved three to five, six, like everybody. But there’s a lot of speed inside us, I can see him having a beautiful run. But there’s going to be 20 people with different speed maps.

“We’ve got the right horse, he’s going well, he’s third up. Hopefully, he just gets on the back of the right horse and gets some clear air and hits that line. He could be three deep with cover. If he is then, you know what, look out.”

Schiller agreed Ka Ying Rising was a deserved favourite but said he was “definitely beatable”.

“Whether he gets in his comfort zone or not is a different story,” he said.

“Whether he loves the track or conditions, any sort of pressure from the other speed horses.

“He’s definitely going to be hard to get past and, yeah, I feel like my horse is going good enough. But we’re yet to see what Ka Ying Rising can do over here.”

Schiller also has chances in $2 million races with Clear Thinking ($5.50) in the Kosciuszko and Coal Crusher ($31) in the Sydney Stakes.

“Clear Thinking’s only got the light weight but a tough barrier,” he said

“She’s definitely in good enough form and gets the blinkers on. She looks like she’s trialling up well.

“Coal Crusher, I thought his run here the other day over 1000 was terrific. It’s probably not his best distance, he didn’t have his blinkers on and this looks a very winnable race.”