Winning the 'best tonic' for Gai Waterhouse after Melbourne Cup victory with Fiorente

IF Gai Waterhouse was nervous before the Melbourne Cup, as she claimed to be, it didn't show in the mounting yard.

IF Gai Waterhouse was nervous before yesterday's Melbourne Cup, as she claimed to be, it didn't show in the mounting yard.

She flitted through the whispers of a hundred plots and conspiracies, a splash of green feathers floating through a throng of heads. She gave out quiet smiles that contrasted with the outbreaks of tension about her.

The grins of Mark Kavanagh, trainer of Super Cool, slowed up as the sweat on his forehead beaded. Nearby, Mount Athos owner Marwan Koukash juggled two mobile phones and issued edicts to jockey Craig Williams.

Yet Tom and Kate Waterhouse, Gai's children, beamed the million-watt smiles of celebrity children. Perhaps Gai herself, as she later said, was cherishing the "vivid" thoughts of yesterday morning: the memory of her horse training father, Tommy Smith.

Smith won the Melbourne Cup twice, the last time in 1981 with Just A Dash. That horse's owner, Lloyd Williams, had six starters yesterday, one-quarter of the field, and he had been depicted in pre-race hype as some sort of horse-racing chess master.

Yet Gai Waterhouse was to credit Williams, post-race, for her victory, for the sort of generous advice that had helped her father win with Just A Dash all those years ago. A competitor's help in victory?

Tom Waterhouse with wife Hoda Vakili and sister Kate after his mum won the Cup. Picture: Colleen Petch

Indeed, yesterday was a day of firsts more than two decades in the crafting. Waterhouse isn't the first victorious woman trainer of the Melbourne Cup. Officially, that goes to Sheila Laxton, trainer of Ethereal in 2001, although, it's said that "Granny" McDonald actually trained the 1938 winner Catalogue.

Yet never before has a winning trainer vowed to become a better grandmother. Or produced a brush mid-press conference to fix her hair. Or, with her brief history in acting, so effortlessly flicked the switch from coquettish to straight-talking.

Gai Waterhouse holds the Cup after winning with Damien Oliver aboard Fiorente. Picture: Colleen Petch

Never before has a trainer turned to acknowledge her husband, the bookmaker, and her son, the bookmaker, both of whom she has been compelled to fiercely defend over the years - Robbie after he was banned from racing for his involvement in the 1984 Fine Cotton affair, and Tom after horse owner John Singleton made (unproven) allegations earlier this year.

The race didn't go to plan - Melbourne Cups never do - but it went pretty close.

Winning the 'best tonic' for Gai

Jockey Damien Oliver found his mount farther back than he hoped after early speed. On the final bend, however, Oliver eased to the outside and was closer to the front than he expected.

At the 200m mark, he was leading. Those final lengths took a very long time, Oliver said. Inside, he brimmed with raw emotion.

He, like the Waterhouses, had endured unsettling times before yesterday.

Oliver was rubbed out last year for illegal betting. Teary scenes and admissions during his hearing prompted his labelling as the "master of disguises".

Oliver's story broke hearts when he rode the 2002 winner, Media Puzzle, a week after his brother Jason died in a race fall.

Damien Oliver after his win on Fiorente in the Melbourne cup on Fiorente.

Described as the most nerveless of riders, Oliver returned to scale yesterday patting Fiorente and repeating a mantra to his mount: "Good boy. Good boy."

He now had his wish. At his press conference, Oliver said he much preferred to look ahead than backwards.

Waterhouse, too, seemed keen to move on to the next thing. She has been seen to play the de facto roles of politician and family defender as well horse trainer in recent months after mutterings exchanged with John Singleton in the Randwick mounting yard grew into insults during a later stewards' inquiry. It followed Waterhouse's strange barrier choice for Singleton's horse More Joyous in last year's Cox Plate.

Fiorente's owners hold up the Melbourne Cup.

Winning was the "best tonic", she said yesterday, when asked about her recent woes. Her chat with the media was effectively over when she saw a TV screen. The next race was on. Waterhouse had a runner.

Rain Drum faded down the straight. "Oh, he's gone," she said, momentarily forgetting that she had just won the biggest race on the Australian calendar.

Like Oliver, Waterhouse seemed far more interested in the promises of tomorrow than the problems of the past.