One hails from a farming family in the Czech Republic, the other is an American with a background in medical research.This unlikely training partnership of Oldrich Jiricka and Lisa Cohen will be out to beat former boss Chris Waller at his own game in Saturday's feature race at Rosehill.Cohen and Jiricka will start Spence in the $100,000 Stayer's Cup (3200m) with early markets headed by the Waller-trained pair of Strike One and Patrician's Glory.Waller is Sydney's leading trainer this season and

One hails from a farming family in the Czech Republic, the other is an American with a background in medical research.

This unlikely training partnership of Oldrich Jiricka and Lisa Cohen will be out to beat former boss Chris Waller at his own game in Saturday's feature race at Rosehill.

Cohen and Jiricka will start Spence in the $100,000 Stayer's Cup (3200m) with early markets headed by the Waller-trained pair of Strike One and Patrician's Glory.

Waller is Sydney's leading trainer this season and has dominated races over 2000m and further, particularly with his band of imports which include his two Stayer's Cup aspirants.

The North Carolina-born Cohen, who says training allows her to combine her passions for science, medicine and horses, spent close to two years learning the ropes under Waller.

"I expressed my interest to Chris that I wanted to train and I was willing to do anything. I started at 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning with Oldrich doing boxes and he (Waller) told me the best way to learn was just to get in there and get your hands dirty," Cohen said.

Cohen realised her dream, taking out her trainer's licence at the end of 2006 before formally teaming up with Jiricka just under a year ago.

Spence has been the pair's flagship horse.

A two-time country Cup winner, Spence finished runner-up to Patrician's Glory over 2800m at Canterbury last start and Cohen has no doubt he will handle the step up to 3200m on Saturday.

"He's really happy, he's holding his condition really well, he's bright-eyed and I think he can really go the distance," she said.

Cohen and Jiricka train from a property in the lower Blue Mountains and Cohen believes the seven-year-old relishes the one-on-one attention and the natural environment.

It is an environment Jiricka knows well having grown up with animals on his grandmother's farm before coming to Australia 10 years ago.

"There's no real racing in the Czech Republic so I came to thoroughbred racing when I came here and met Lisa and her husband," Jiricka said.

"It's been unbelievable, you learn every single day."

The pair make an unlikely team but Jiricka says their respective skills and life experience are in their favour.

"That's why it seems to work for us. We come from different backgrounds and we have different points of view and we talk about the problems and come up with a solution," he said.

Spence is a special horse to Cohen and she describes him as "part of the family".

She is not only the gelding's co-trainer but his managing owner, his breeder and she and Jiricka broke him in.

If he could win on Saturday he would fittingly give the duo their first Saturday metropolitan win.

Not to mention bragging rights over Waller.