Also on offer for Schiller, if he can maintain his current standing, are possible short term stints in the lucrative Japan Racing Association.
Another factor that would make Schiller a hit in Asia is his weight: he can ride the Hong Kong minimum of 115 pounds easily, and next week he will get down to at least 110 pounds to take over from Purton on Communist in the Doncaster Handicap.
Schiller is clearly riding a wave but a career in the saddle was no sure thing. He grew up in a harness racing family near Young, in the rural Riverina region of New South Wales, his dad Glen and grandfather Peter both trotting trainers.
A career in the sulky seemed more likely than atop a horse, and Schiller competed in mini trotting (pony racing) and even completed the 20 trials required to become a senior trotting driver.
“I loved it, and I would still do it, and I would love to do it after racing,” Schiller notes of his experience with standardbreds.
At 15 he switched to ‘the gallops’, at first working in the stables of old-school handler Chris Hayward and then a horse stud in the region, but was “too weak to ride” and inexperienced working with the more flighty thoroughbred.