Gai Waterhouse
Encyclopedia
Gai Waterhouse is a Scottish
-born, Australian resident horse trainer
, businesswoman and a former actress
School in Sydney
, and completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of New South Wales
in 1975. The daughter of Randwick
racehorse trainer T.J. Smith
, she made a name for herself as a model
and actor
, including in the Australian drama The Young Doctors
before moving to England
and appearing in the Doctor Who
story The Invasion of Time
. She then returned to Australia where she served an apprenticeship under her father for fifteen years before getting her own trainer's licence.
She was granted her Australian Jockey Club
licence in January 1992, although this was made difficult as her husband, Robbie Waterhouse, was banned over his involvement in the Fine Cotton
scandal. AJC
rules at the time stipulated that the spouse of a banned person could not be licensed, although this was subsequently overturned. Her first winner was the horse Gifted Poet in March 1992, and her first Group One
winner was Te Akau Nick in the Metropolitan Handicap in October that year. After T.J. Smith became ill, he passed on the Tulloch Lodge stable to her in the 1994-95 season.
She was well-known to many Australians when Nothin' Leica Dane came into the Melbourne Cup
in 1995 after winning the Victoria Derby
three days earlier. The three year old colt ran second in the Melbourne Cup
, a race which no three year old has won since Skipton in 1941.
In 1996-97 she had 10 Group One
wins and won her first Sydney premiership. In 2001, Gai trifected the Golden Slipper
and added the first of three successive Sydney training premierships, culminating with 156 wins in 2002/03, equalling her father's Sydney training record. In 2004/05 Gai had 11 Group One wins and added a fifth Sydney training premiership. As of 2010 the Gai Waterhouse stable at Tulloch Lodge has won 102 Group One races.
Waterhouse's other successful horses include Golden Slipper
winners Dance Hero, Ha Ha and the newly crowned 2008 Golden Slipper winner and Australian two year old of the year, Sebring
. Prolific Group One
winners Grand Armee, Juggler, and All Our Mob as well as two time Epsom Handicap
winner Desert War
. Gai also won the 2010 BMW Caulfield Cup
with Descarado.
for "outstanding contribution to Thoroughbred Racing".
She is also an Australian Living Treasure
nominated by the National Trust of Australia
.
Gai was inducted into the Australian Racing's Hall of Fame in late November 2007. Her late father Tommy (T.J.) Smith is already an inductee.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born, Australian resident horse trainer
Horse trainer
In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...
, businesswoman and a former actress
Career
Waterhouse was educated at the Kincoppal-Rose BayKincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart, Sydney
Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School of the Sacred Heart , is a private, Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for girls, located in Rose Bay, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
School in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, and completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in 1975. The daughter of Randwick
Randwick, New South Wales
Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
racehorse trainer T.J. Smith
Tommy Smith (racing)
Thomas John Smith AM MBE also known as Tommy Smith or T. J. Smith was a leading trainer of thoroughbred racehorses based in Sydney, Australia. He is acknowledged for his record number of Sydney Trainers Premierships and for training many champion racehorses including Tulloch, Gunsynd and Kingston...
, she made a name for herself as a model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, including in the Australian drama The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors is an Australian early evening soap opera. The series was set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital and primarily concerned with romances between younger members of the hospital staff, screened on the Nine Network from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March...
before moving to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and appearing in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
story The Invasion of Time
The Invasion of Time
The Invasion of Time is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 4 February to 11 March 1978...
. She then returned to Australia where she served an apprenticeship under her father for fifteen years before getting her own trainer's licence.
She was granted her Australian Jockey Club
Australian Jockey Club
The Australian Jockey Club was founded in January 1842. It morphed from the former Australian Racing Committee set up in May 1840 to set the standards for racing in the colony...
licence in January 1992, although this was made difficult as her husband, Robbie Waterhouse, was banned over his involvement in the Fine Cotton
Fine Cotton
Fine Cotton was a brown Australian Thoroughbred gelding which was at the centre of a substitution scam which occurred on 18 August 1984, in the Commerce Novice Handicap over 1,500 metres at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane, Queensland...
scandal. AJC
Australian Jockey Club
The Australian Jockey Club was founded in January 1842. It morphed from the former Australian Racing Committee set up in May 1840 to set the standards for racing in the colony...
rules at the time stipulated that the spouse of a banned person could not be licensed, although this was subsequently overturned. Her first winner was the horse Gifted Poet in March 1992, and her first Group One
Group One
Group One or Group 1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. Group One races may be run under handicap conditions in Australia but in Europe weight-for-age conditions always apply. Races may be also restricted to age groups or a...
winner was Te Akau Nick in the Metropolitan Handicap in October that year. After T.J. Smith became ill, he passed on the Tulloch Lodge stable to her in the 1994-95 season.
She was well-known to many Australians when Nothin' Leica Dane came into the Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
in 1995 after winning the Victoria Derby
Victoria Derby
The Victoria Derby is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race held annually on the first day of Melbourne's annual Spring Racing Carnival, Victorian Derby Day, held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. A Group One race for three-year-old horses, it is raced on a left-handed turf course at a...
three days earlier. The three year old colt ran second in the Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
, a race which no three year old has won since Skipton in 1941.
In 1996-97 she had 10 Group One
Group One
Group One or Group 1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. Group One races may be run under handicap conditions in Australia but in Europe weight-for-age conditions always apply. Races may be also restricted to age groups or a...
wins and won her first Sydney premiership. In 2001, Gai trifected the Golden Slipper
Golden Slipper
The Golden Slipper Stakes is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race for two year old horses held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney run over 1,200 metres on turf at set weights. It is the premier two year old race in Australia and is the world's richest race for two-year-old Thoroughbreds....
and added the first of three successive Sydney training premierships, culminating with 156 wins in 2002/03, equalling her father's Sydney training record. In 2004/05 Gai had 11 Group One wins and added a fifth Sydney training premiership. As of 2010 the Gai Waterhouse stable at Tulloch Lodge has won 102 Group One races.
Waterhouse's other successful horses include Golden Slipper
Golden Slipper
The Golden Slipper Stakes is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race for two year old horses held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney run over 1,200 metres on turf at set weights. It is the premier two year old race in Australia and is the world's richest race for two-year-old Thoroughbreds....
winners Dance Hero, Ha Ha and the newly crowned 2008 Golden Slipper winner and Australian two year old of the year, Sebring
Sebring (horse)
Sebring was a top class two-year-old Australian Thoroughbred racehorse, that won five of his six race starts. After winning the AJC Breeders Plate in his spring debut, he had wins in the Golden Slipper and AJC Sires Produce Stakes and second place, defeated by a nose, in the AJC Champagne...
. Prolific Group One
Group One
Group One or Group 1 is the term used for the highest level of Thoroughbred and Standardbred stakes races in many countries. Group One races may be run under handicap conditions in Australia but in Europe weight-for-age conditions always apply. Races may be also restricted to age groups or a...
winners Grand Armee, Juggler, and All Our Mob as well as two time Epsom Handicap
Epsom Handicap
The Epsom Handicap is a Group 1 Australian Thoroughbred horse race held over 1,600 metres at Randwick Racecourse. It is one of the major races of the Sydney Spring Carnival. Many great milers have won the race, including Chatham, Gunsynd, and Super Impose, who was also a dual winner of the...
winner Desert War
Desert War (horse)
Desert War was an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse gelding that won six Group one races including the Epsom Handicap , Chipping Norton Stakes, LKS Mackinnon Stakes, AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Ranvet Stakes....
. Gai also won the 2010 BMW Caulfield Cup
Caulfield Cup
The Caulfield Cup, one of Australia's richest Thoroughbred horse races and the richest of its type in the world is held annually by the Melbourne Racing Club. The race is a handicap like the Melbourne Cup, which means that horses that compete in the Caulfield Cup are capable of running on the...
with Descarado.
Awards
On 30 September 2000, she was awarded the Australian Sports MedalAustralian Sports Medal
The Australian Sports Medal was an award given during 2000 to recognise achievements in Australian sport.Recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, office holders, and people who maintained sporting facilities and services. Over 18,000 Medals were...
for "outstanding contribution to Thoroughbred Racing".
She is also an Australian Living Treasure
Australian Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures are people who have been nominated by the National Trust of Australia. The first list of 100 Living Treasures was published in 1997....
nominated by the National Trust of Australia
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
.
Gai was inducted into the Australian Racing's Hall of Fame in late November 2007. Her late father Tommy (T.J.) Smith is already an inductee.
External links
- Gai Waterhouse (Official Website)
- WATERHOUSE, (Gai) Gabriel Marie International Who's Who. accessed 3 September 2006.