It's time for Gai Waterhouse to dump the optimism and give punters a fair crack

GAI Waterhouse might instinctively describe a looming storm as sunny skies but relaying information about a racehorse is serious stuff.

Gai Waterhouse

FOR some perspective of the silliness of the More Joyous saga, to distinguish a story from a soap opera, go to the ABC website and iView the past two episodes of Australian Story.

The subject was cyclist Anna Meares; her two great rivals, one her sister, the other the great Victoria Pendleton. There was the crash that almost killed her, the raw relationships with coaches and family, the unbearable tension of that final race in London.

Contrast that to the pantomime of this other sport story, Gai Waterhouse and John Singleton.

The only thread of relevance was not Waterhouse and her relationship with Singleton and her bookmaker husband and son, but her relationship with the punting public.

The former actor's sunny disposition has pushed her through many dark days, not least of all her daily 2am starts.

Without her eternal positivity she may never have become a trainer, may never have kept banging on the Australian Jockey Club's door, year after year, to convince them that a bookie's wife was entitled to train horses.

Without that manic optimism she may have been beaten into believing racing really was the Sport of Kings.

Gai is fuelled by her belief, her bluff, that things will always work out.

The problem is that in racing, they don't.

For every horse that wins, there are a dozen that were never going to.

For every one that courageously carries a niggle to victory, there are dozens that run second-last.

The More Joyous saga has exposed not just the potential conflict of interest of the Waterhouse dynamic, and the danger of whispers, but also the perils of Gai as trainer and conduit.

More Joyous had a bad week leading into the All Aged Stakes. She had a sore neck and vets had surrounded her for two days.

Yet Singo says Gai told him More Joyous was "flying" and would "just win".

Gai might instinctively describe a looming storm as sunny skies but relaying information about a racehorse is serious stuff.

It requires accuracy and a sense of responsibility, not just to an owner who forks out $120 a day and was hankering for a $100,000 bet, but to the rank and file.

Waterhouse is worth squillions.

Many of the punters who back her horses, often on her sunny recommendation, are not. They are the hopeful to the desperate. A nod from Gai and the rent money is on.

Her optimistic spin has always been regarded with caution. Owners once seduced by it have moved on in frustration.

Gai, so famous and generous beyond the racetrack, is great for racing but poison for punters. Twenty of her favourites - spruiked up as always on radio and TV - got rolled one after the other this autumn.

Mostly she gets away with it because Gai is, well, Gai.

But there is a lesson for Gai in this More Joyous pantomime, one she will probably ignore.

If the sky is grey, don't call it blue. If a champion is OK to run but has had a bad week, let the mugs know.