[AusRace] The Ballad of Gai & Robbie .....(Dedicated to Scotty )

[norsaint publishing]

Have been reading that book by the same author and it is just a book,
let me tell you.
The only new thing I've discovered is, apparently, Rob's favourite
movie is Butch Cassidy.

The rest of it is written in a disjointed, breathless fashion and is
mostly a cut and paste job.
There's a couple of absolute howlers in there too, whether they're his
fault or the editors', who can say?
It refers to Kingston Town's second in the cup, claiming he went to
the front 800m out.
I'm sure he took over at the top of the straight, which is the 600 of
course.  In fact Saintly would have grabbed the lead in a very similar
spot.
A few pages later, the Golden Slipper winner Star Watch is referred to
as a mare, which he most definitely wasn't.  There were probably more
but they were two that stuck.
It's always good when a new racing book hits the stands and
disappointing when they aren't up to much.

On 8/2/09, Earlie Fires <earliefires at gmail.com> wrote:
> Talking about old archives...
>
> I moved house recently and found an interesting article.
> by John Ellicott - 07/09/01
> Bookies deride Waterhouse
>
> BOOKMAKER Robbie Waterhouse has become the chicken of the Sydney
> betting ring since his return from a 14-year ban over the Fine Cotton
> ring-in, according to fellow bookies.
> Mr Waterhouse used to take $20,000 or $30,000 winning bets without
> question. But punters say he won't accept any bets that may cost him
> more than $2000 in his new career.
> One of the nation's biggest punters, Mark Read, told The Australian Mr
> Waterhouse refused him a $10,000 winning bet.
> "Robbie as a bookmaker is a non-event", Mr Read said. "The biggest bet
> he will take is a maximum $2000 to lose. I went for him for a $10,0000
> bet and he refused".
> Fellow bookmakers were scathing of Mr Waterhouse privately, one saying
> he was "too scared to put his balls on the line".
> "He came into the ring boasting he was going to set it alight and for
> weeks talked about our shortcomings," he said. But he's far worse than
> any bookmaker there".
> A leading Sydney bookmaker said he has asked for a $2000 bet and was
> knocked down to $800. He said a punter at a recent meeting at Gosford
> went along the line of bookmakers on the rails putting $500 with each
> of them on a 9/1 chance. All of them took the money expect Mr
> Waterhouse, who cut him back to $300. The horse lost.
>
> ...and the story goes on...
>
> That was in 2001...I wonder how things and going now?
>
> It is interesting to see that John Ellicott wrote that article and
> also wrote the book - Waterhouse & Smith
>
> http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2009/05/14/77551_country-books.html
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 5:06 AM, Duff<mdu59851 at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>>
>> Good Mornin' Rob W (in particular ) & Ausracers (in general)  ,
>>
>> I hope me re-printing this article does not cause You & Gai any
>> embarrassment  Rob, ............it comes from deep in my archives , & is
>> in
>> the "public domain" (whatever that really means) .
>>
>> I think it is timely to run it again , with Gai just landing her 7th
>> Premiership .
>>
>> A "Team Effort" methinks .
>>
>> Apart from the "adrenalin rush" of the punt .........I share Gai &
>> Denise's
>> enthusiasm for "The Pageantry Of Racing".
>>
>> Racedays ....wherever you happen to be .......Rosehill ...Flemington
>> ....Morphettville .....Stony Creek ....Darwin ( on Monday) or Oakbank at
>> Easter ..........it's all just a big stage .........lots of props
>> ......lots
>> of backdrops ........lots of "actors" .......lots of "pretenders ".....  (
>> both human & equine ) :-) .
>>
>>
>> I'll run it as a feature story in next week's "Cygnet Newsletter"  for the
>> world to read .
>>
>> That'll make 2 Gai / Robbie / Tulloch Lodge / Nash stories 2 weeks running
>> :-) .
>>
>> This  article was published in The SMH on November 4th 2006 .
>>
>> This was around the time I experienced a "conversion on the Damascus road
>> "
>> & started to take runners from Tulloch Lodge a lot more seriously .
>>
>> The last 3 seasons have been very exciting & most profitable for me in
>> Sydney .....thanks to "selected " Tulloch Lodge runners .
>>
>> A trip to Sydney shortly afterward my "conversion"  & an invitation to
>> Tulloch Lodge with my lovely daughter on Sunday mornin' to meet Gai &
>> Denise
>> Martin only increased my respect .
>>
>> Two friends that attended with me on a subsequent  morning are now proud
>> part -owners of a couple of Star Thoroughbred horses .
>>
>> Jeff & Barbara have been in Singapore for the last 2 years
>> ............Jeff
>> has just retired & is returning to Australia today .........so I suspect
>> they maybe  lookin' at some new stock before long :-) .
>>
>> I personally think Caroline Wilson's done a damn fine job on the story
>> ..;............great photo !!!
>>
>> If anyone would like an HTML copy , just ask .
>>
>> *****************************************************
>>
>> PARTNERS  IN  THEIR  PRIME : The bookie and the Trainer controlling an
>> Empire
>> November 4, 2006
>>
>> They've had their bad times, but Rob and Gai Waterhouse are flying high,
>> writes Caroline Wilson.
>>
>>
>> The team … Rob and Gai Waterhouse.
>> Photo: John Donegan
>>
>> ROB Waterhouse jokes that he may have fallen in love with an actress who
>> used to arrive home at dawn - but he wound up married to a racehorse
>> trainer
>> who rises before three in the morning.
>>
>> But clearly he has become used to the strangeness of their hours, because
>> some of Gai and Rob Waterhouse's most constructive dialogue takes place
>> when
>> the rest of us are sleeping. One such conversation took place in the very
>> early spring and could prove pivotal to her tantalising prospects at
>> Flemington today.
>>
>> Derby Day, according to Gai Waterhouse, is one of Australia's greatest
>> pageants. She still regards a day at the races as a theatrical event.
>>
>> But six weeks ago, her famous optimism - the "joie de vivre" that she
>> insists drives her success - was ill-founded. Rob Waterhouse, the
>> bookmaker,
>> had studied the form and delivered to his wife some home truths.
>>
>> "He told me that the situation was no good," Gai said this week. "Our
>> results were no good, our two-year-olds were slow and that we weren't
>> training group 1 winners. I knew in my heart he was right but I needed to
>> be
>> kicked in the bum to realise it.
>>
>> "I'm a high achiever but I have to be slapped around a bit. Maybe that's
>> what stops me drifting off from time to time. Rob keeps my focus. He does
>> the form in every race and he knows how we're going and what we're up
>> against. We are two very independent people but we are very much a team."
>>
>> Added Rob: "It's entropy. If you let the staff be in charge of things they
>> just deteriorate."
>>
>> MFD........real nice word "entropy" Rob......where the hell did you pull
>> that one from ??........a transformation certainly occurred at Tulloch
>> Lodge
>> at around that time .
>>
>> If Waterhouse the trainer's focus had drifted, it then immediately
>> sharpened. She started to notice things again that her strappers didn't.
>> She
>> stepped up her two-year-olds' exercise routine, walked her horses for
>> longer
>> and increased their time on the treadmill. "We turned the stable around in
>> six weeks," she said.
>>
>> The bookmaker's son and the trainer's daughter, who followed their
>> parents'
>> professions, have been through the toughest of times, and now in their
>> 50s,
>> according to Gai, are having the time of their lives.
>>
>> They no longer feel it necessary to dwell on his fall from grace - Rob was
>> stripped of his licence following the Fine Cotton affair in 1984, regained
>> it in 2001 and has been disciplined again since then. Having communicated
>> his deep regret for the incident in the past, Rob this week spoke only of
>> the unconditional and passionate support he received from his wife
>> throughout it all.
>>
>> For her part, Gai says her life story includes a recurring theme of tough
>> love. "That's what motivates me," she said, "when people say, and they
>> still
>> do, 'she's doing no good'. It helps that I'm married to a statistician
>> because he keeps me honest."
>>
>> The tangible turning point for Gai and her stable following her husband's
>> most recent lecture came at the Epsom meeting at Randwick a month ago,
>> when
>> she trained three winners, including in the group 1 Flight Stakes. The
>> only
>> woman to have trained a winner in the Victoria Derby - Nothin' Leica Dane
>> in
>> 1995 - she has no runner in that race today, but five big chances
>> including
>> Aqua D'Amore and Desert War in the Mackinnon and Cheeky Choice and Tuesday
>> Joy in the Wakeful.
>>
>> Whatever her results, Rob will be working at the races in Sydney and,
>> although he would rather remain there throughout the Melbourne carnival,
>> travels south with his wife each year because, "she likes to have me
>> around
>> and I like to be there for her".
>>
>> What adds to Gai's success story is that she is a glamorous
>> porcelain-skinned woman who has also proved to be a hands-on mother to her
>> two children, run a stable of 130 horses and 80 staff, and promoted her
>> industry almost as much through her fashion sense and femininity as she
>> has
>> through her success.
>>
>> Her pride in her appearance, she says, comes as much from her father as
>> her
>> competitive nature. "He was always very dapper, even at dawn doing
>> trackwork," she said of TJ Smith, who died in 1998 on the eve of his 80th
>> birthday. "And I expect the same of my staff because I think it sends a
>> very
>> important message. If you pay a lot of money to send your child to a
>> leading
>> Melbourne boys' school you shouldn't have to be impressed when the
>> headmaster knows the names of all the students.
>>
>> "You expect it. That's my job. I am the headmistress."
>>
>> Rob made a success of other business interests in the 17 years without his
>> bookmaker's licence, and the impression is that Gai, on the back of her
>> spectacular success, could afford to retire. She finds the suggestion, at
>> 54, a little sexist.
>>
>> "You wouldn't ask me about retirement if I was a male trainer," she said.
>> "Unless I was about 70. I do more now than I've ever done and from the age
>> of 40 I've really only got busier. All of us have. All of us are driven
>> successful types."
>>
>> Gai says she feels no shame in being drawn towards successful people.
>> "They
>> are the ones who can afford to buy racehorses," she says laughing. "I
>> couldn't have done at 25 the amount of things I do now. Rob and I are at a
>> time of our lives where we are terrible busy and terribly happy. It's a
>> wonderful time. But I thrive on it. I love it. Male or female, it would be
>> no different."
>>
>> Her husband, who is doing the form on his laptop across the room,
>> interrupts. "Gai," he says gently but firmly, "you are a lady trainer."
>>
>> She looks at him quizzically. "I'm not sure," she muses, before adding:
>> "What do they say about us? The hand that rocks the cradle rules the
>> world.
>> They underestimated me when I started out the way they so often
>> underestimate women in this country.
>>
>> "Any one of us would be icons elsewhere. We can do so many things at the
>> same time and we do them well. And we never stop. I know I'll still be
>> doing
>> this, coming to Melbourne and working to win, in 10 years' time. Even if
>> we
>> have success on derby day I've got to be focused on tomorrow. It's all
>> over
>> once you've had a win until you've had the next win. I've got to kick
>> another goal."
>>
>> Does the pressure keep her awake during her short nights? "No," she says.
>> "I'm always too tired."
>>
>> Regards & Good Luck to you both in 2009 / 2010
>>
>> Duff .
>>
>> PS..........I deleted one para from the story , but decided that was sort
>> of
>> cheating ...so restored it .
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael O'Shaunessy Duffy
>> Cygnet Racing Foundation
>> Cygnet Thoroughbred Management
>> Chiang Mai Bloodstock Syndications
>> 63 Vine St   Magill  SA   5072
>> Ph :...(08) 8364 6659
>> Mob:...0400 526 193
>> Email:...mdu59851 at bigpond.net.au
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AusRace mailing list
>> AusRace at ausrace.com
>> http://ausrace.com/mailman/listinfo/ausrace
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AusRace mailing list
> AusRace at ausrace.com
> http://ausrace.com/mailman/listinfo/ausrace
>