Tom Waterhouse toes the line when it comes to what his mother Gai recommends

TOM Waterhouse still recalls the day he was surely in trouble and warned off the track - by his mother Gai.

TOM Waterhouse still recalls the day he was warned off the track. He suspects his mum was 20m away when she spied the offending stubble. Her eyes narrowed as she made her way across the betting ring.

 "You haven't shaved," Gai Waterhouse told him. "Leave now."

As Tom tells it: "I had to go to a petrol station, purchase a razor, have a dry shave and go back to the track."

This was 10 years ago. Tom was not yet a bookie, instead working for his father, Robbie, on a rare Sunday afternoon race day. This story goes some way to explaining the discipline Gai Waterhouse expects from everyone around her.

LAY OFF MY BOY

"I am a bit fanatical about appearances," says Sydney's leading trainer. "You are in the workplace, people judge you ... if you go up and people look nicely dressed, there is more chance you might want to have a bet, there's more chance you might want to do business with them."

On a warm morning at Randwick last Thursday, her lipstick is perfectly drawn and she sports a tangerine hat.

 She briefs jockeys in the trainers' shelter, carefully recording notes about each mount - all this while the sun has barely risen.

Her love for horse racing and hard work has seen the 58-year-old become one of the best trainers the country has seen.

Tom marvels at his mother's energy. He speaks of her ability to rise at 2.30am while still managing to keep the family in line, cooking dinner and making sure they all did their chores and homework.

"She had so much concentration and put so much work into her business, but at the same time she was an unbelievable mum," he says.

He doesn't imagine her slowing down any time soon.

"I am sure it is just so exciting being her," he continues. "She has the favourite for the Golden Slipper, she has Pierro, the best horse she has probably ever trained.

"She talks about (slowing down), but she just loves doing what she does. Maybe she will slow down, but if you love what you do then it is not really like working, is it?"

Tom has weathered a storm of controversy around his appearances during Channel Nine's football coverage, with members of parliament and the NRL saying he has "blurred" the lines between bookmaking and commentary.

Waterhouse is fiercely protective of her son and bristles when asked about the barbs directed his way.

"Oh bugger the criticism, they want to kill every industry in Australia," she says.

She points out that Tom's agency is Australian owned and is competing against international conglomerates. She insists he will fare well if he fronts a specially convened parliamentary hearing into the spread of gambling into live sporting broadcasts.

"He'll do a very good job and it might put them straight," she says. "There are plenty of other betting companies who are just as much selling to the public.

Gai Waterhouse

"Look, we are a free society. First of all they want to stop you guys (the media) from saying any criticism against the government. Don't we live in a free society? What has gone wrong with Australia? We have gone belly up? The moment they get straight, then we might have some chance of making it as a nation."

Waterhouse is naturally proud of both her children. Her daughter, Kate, has recently branched out to start her own blog on fashion.

"Kate loves fashion and Tom has followed in our footsteps in racing. They are independent people. I try not to be in their face too much," she says. "When I am asked to mind the grandchild, I am delighted."

The grandchild is Rose Waterhouse - daughter of Tom - who arrived this month. There were tears of joy when Gai cradled her for the first time.

"I think that's the beauty about grandchildren and children, they bring families together, it makes you more of a unit," she says.

On her blog, Waterhouse regularly details how fortunate she feels to have a husband like Robbie. A romantic tradition is that every morning, as Gai gets ready to head to the stables, she prepares a fruit platter.

"I started doing it a million years ago, making a face on a plate," she says. "But if I am not happy with him, occasionally I will turn the banana around the other way (to a sad face).

"If I am really unhappy with him, he doesn't get the fruit platter."

They have been married for over 30 years and she says he has helped her become the trainer she is today.

"Firstly, he loves me very dearly, which seems to be a rarity in this life," she offers.

"But, secondly, he is very supportive of what I do. When I got my trainer's licence, he supported me. If I am not going very well, if I am not training enough winners, he will be pecking at me, saying, 'C'mon, what's the matter with your stats, you've got to improve'.

"He is all about trying to make sure I am doing well. He's opened many doors that I may not have opened if I hadn't been married to Rob. If I said tomorrow I am going to give up training, he would be totally supportive of that."

Waterhouse makes it clear that a trainer's life can be awfully tiring. Tom even recalls his mother falling asleep mid-sentence.

"I get exhausted," she explains. "I have a massage five days a week. I know I have to be on the table at a certain hour and she presses a button on my foot and next minute I am asleep. But I swing on that. We live a pretty quiet life."

Waterhouse has thought about giving it away, usually when she can't find a winner.

"When I am not training winners I get sick of it. It's hard when you are not doing well. I don't care what business you are in, but you have to keep heading forward. I think it is important to have determination."

She says her only regret when was she didn't get the chance to watch her children play Saturday sport because of the races.

Waterhouse can imagine the time when her Saturdays no longer belong to horses.

"I will hopefully have enough time in the next few years, when Rose starts to run around, to be able to really enjoy my grandchildren and have time to go to the football matches, tennis matches, things I didn't have time to do with my children," she says.

But for now there is work to do.

Gai Waterhouse

She says Pierro is the best horse she has trained and there are still goals out there, pushing her on the pre-dawn starts.

"I like training horses and if Pierro were to race on and go to Royal Ascot, I would love to have the privilege of taking him (there). I would love to win the Melbourne Cup and I have probably got a better chance now than in the 20 years I have trained."

The sun is well into the sky by now and it is time for Waterhouse to head home. But something catches her eye and she excitedly points at a horse.

"That's a filly called Sweet Idea, I am very excited about her," she says.

"I think we have got a terrific chance in a lot of the majors, the Golden Slipper being the most important race in Australia. It makes the sires - all the major sires that stand in Australia in the studs have either won the Golden Slipper or run in the first three.

"We have got about three chances in the Doncaster,

we have a couple of the weight-for-age races coming up, the George Ryder, where you will see Pierro again . . . the queen of the turf, the mare More Joyous."

And Gai will be there as immaculate as ever, always fiercely loyal to her family, her horses and the sport that has shaped her life.