



Gai &amp; the invasion of time

Gai Waterhouse with Pierro and strapper Travis Whittaker.

Gai Waterhouse with Pierro and strapper Travis Whittaker. Photo: Getty Images


The Saturday Age has slipped in one last question after the walk back from the infield, before her driver Damien Gaffney passes the phone for interview No. 2 in another hectic day of being Gai. ''By name and by nature!'' Waterhouse is wont to say, and it's funny because it's true.

''It's a long time ago, but if I see a Dr Who series or someone mentions it, it seems like yesterday,'' she says of London in the late 1970s. Life was a hoot then for Gai Smith, the daughter of legendary trainer Tommy, who spent her early 20s modelling coats in the East End, doing shows at Earl's Court, touring Copenhagen and Canada, pulling pints in a Putney pub. And playing a rabbit skin-wearing hippie named Presta in the last three episodes of a six-part series alongside Tom Baker's time-travelling doctor (''a lovely man'').







''And why would you? Why interview someone who's not winning the races? The public want to know, 'What's Pierro going to do?' 'What's Lonhro going to do?' 'What's Makybe Diva going to do?' 'What's Atlantic Jewel going to do?' That's what we want.


The unbeaten Pierro has ensured they've been ringing non-stop this week, and she can understand the interest. Waterhouse calls Lonhro's son ''the most exciting equine prospect in Australasia for quite some time'', and has no doubts he has justified Caulfield Guineas odds so short that her omnipresent bookmaker son Tom is offering money back on bets should he somehow not salute (with his smiling mum front and centre in the ''Gai's Best'' ad campaign).


Social media's cruelty saddens her (''what does it gain''?); she knows it will be far easier to change Overreach's gait than the perception that her son has ridden the family name, but says he's been well-trained (by father Robbie) and has a thick skin. ''Tom will rise to the top whatever he does. It's a damn hard career, and most fail dismally. Tom just gets on with things, he's got to.''

In order to do so herself, Waterhouse changed her Melbourne base from hotel to inner-city apartment. Gaffney says it's staggering how often strangers stop her for a chat; the trainer puts it down to the interest and education of locals, who ''know the players … they have a feel about it''. In Sydney, she says, she is rarely recognised.

Her initial suggestion/instruction - ''Let's walk and talk'' - hints that time is short, yet she makes some for everyone. Her answers are punctuated with a, ''Hello! How are you? Good to see you'' here, a ''Morning!'' there for every passing track rider or strapper who catches her eye.

Daybreak is just another cue to keep moving - more interviews, owners to be phoned and emailed, a luncheon at Caulfield, afternoon tea with 30 personally invited women as part of her David Jones ambassadorship. Hopefully time for another visit to the stables, even a few moments stolen to ''goof around with Rob''. Squeezed in somewhere will be ''little sleeps'' to recharge. ''I've got to have a little bit of a rest - and look glam''!


Surely she must be proud that the name on everyone's lips this spring is a woman's, that she is the one leading the charge? ''It doesn't even enter my head,'' she says. ''I don't think of myself as a woman going on the track, I'm a trainer. I'm just successful because I make it happen.''

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