By Ray Thomas Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph

HE'S learned from the best, now he is competing against the best — and beating them.

Scott Aspery, one Sydney's "generation next" trainers, can continue his emergence when stable "poster girl", Estonian Princess takes on a crack field in the Listed $100,000 Festival Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill Gardens.

Aspery, 42, has only been training for four years but enjoyed his biggest success so far when Estonian Princess, owned by Glenn Williams of Karuta Queen fame, won the Group 3 James B. Carr Stakes during the Sydney autumn carnival.

"Estonian Princess has been our best to date — she has helped get our name out there," Aspery said.

The talented mare has been winless in five starts this spring but hasn't run a bad race including her close second to Neena Rock in the Angst Stakes, her fast finishing fifth in Bonaria's Group 1 Myer Classic then her last start fifth to Politeness in the Summoned Stakes at Sandown.

"She was great in the Myer Classic then at Sandown, she didn't handle it well going down the hill to the home turn but she was still very game running fifth,'' Aspery said.

"She is fit and well and very full of herself. The two trips to Melbourne haves not affected her at all, she is a very good traveller.''

Estonian Princess is at $10 with TAB Fixed Odds for the Festival Stakes but Aspery his confident his mare will run very competitively.

"There are some good, seasoned horses in the field but she is in great order and thrives on racing. The more starts she has, the better she gets,'' Aspery said.

"If she can measure up to her effort in the Myer Classic, then she will run very well.

"Our plan is to keep her going after (today's) race and run her in the Villiers Stakes in two weeks.''

Aspery came into the sport after initially working in the banking industry but fast-tracked his ambitions to become a racehorse trainer by learning from the best in the business at Royal Randwick.

"I worked in the stables at Randwick for seven years — I spent half of that time with Gai Waterhouse, and I also worked with John O'Shea, Bart Cummings and Graeme Rogerson,'' Aspery said.

"I wanted to learn as much as I could from the best and take away from them what I thought would work for me once I went out on my own.''

Aspery took out a trainer's licence four years ago and conceded it is difficult getting established in Sydney racing. So what made him give up the relative comfort of banking industry employment to become a racehorse trainer?

"There has always been a family interest in racing,'' he revealed.

"My grandfather was an amateur jockey through the War years, and he always had a couple he bred himself to race out in the bush. When I was at school, my Dad took out a trainer's licence to train my grandfather's horses.

"Then when I was in banking, I always felt I wanted to get into a position to be my own boss, enjoy what I did and work outdoors — and racing is the perfect environment to do that.

"It is very hard in Sydney racing, even the successful trainers will tell you how hard it is. With only eight in work it makes its difficult to be in city races every Saturday with competitive horses.

"We will keep poking along, doing our best, and waiting for our stable numbers to increase. I'm hoping to build that number up. I feel you need 20-25 in work to be competitive in Sydney racing.''