Gai Waterhouse
Trainer of the WeekThe father: T.J. Smith took the licence at Tulloch Lodge in 1941 and turned it into the most successful stable Australia has had: 282 Group 1 winners and 33 consecutive Sydney trainers' premierships. Gai grew up in it, worked in it for fifteen years, and learned the trade from the man who set the record she would spend a career being measured against.
The licence: The Australian Jockey Club refused her one — twice, and for years — and she fought it until it was granted in 1992. Her first winner came that March, Gifted Poet. Her first Group 1 runner, Te Akau Nick, won The Metropolitan that October. She had been ready for a decade; once the gate opened she never went back through it.
The stable: When T.J. fell ill she took the reins of Tulloch Lodge, formally from the 1994–95 season. In 1996–97 she trained ten Group 1 winners and won the first of seven Sydney trainers' premierships — the stable her father built, run to her own numbers.
The Cup: Fiorente ran second in 2012 and won it in 2013, making her the first Australian woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner. It was the one race the Sydney knockers said a Tulloch Lodge stable could not win, and it took her twenty years to answer them.
The partnership: Adrian Bott came in as co-trainer in 2016, a former stable foreman with an equine-science background, and the pair have added 26 Group 1 winners together — the Golden Slipper with Farnan (2020) and again with Lady Of Camelot (2024). Across their first eight seasons the partnership had saddled over 1,200 winners.
Where she is now: Eight Golden Slippers and 160 Group 1 winners on the stable's own count, a Hall of Fame induction in 2007, and a yard that is still the one to beat in Sydney. Last week it won at Flemington, Randwick, Rosehill, Kembla Grange, Gosford and Hawkesbury inside seven days — War Banner, Yauson, Rosie Rouge, Stonecrest, Think I Will, Miss Farnan, Infallible, Visionary, Sur Nova Centauri, Koibito, Superfabulistic and Savvy Spy.
- 1941 — T.J. Smith takes the licence at Tulloch Lodge; 282 Group 1 winners and 33 straight premierships follow
- 1992 — AJC licence granted · first winner Gifted Poet (March) · first Group 1, Te Akau Nick, The Metropolitan (October)
- 1994–95 — takes over Tulloch Lodge as T.J.'s health fails
- 1996–97 — ten Group 1 winners · first Sydney trainers' premiership (seven in all)
- 2007 — inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame
- 2013 — Melbourne Cup (Fiorente) — first Australian woman to train the winner
- 2016 — Adrian Bott joins as co-trainer
- 2020 — Golden Slipper (Farnan) · 2024 — Golden Slipper (Lady Of Camelot)
- 2026 — 12 winners from 47 runners in the first week of the summer carnival, at six tracks
Rachel King
Jockey of the WeekThe beginning: Her father Chris was a fishmonger and an amateur jockey and trainer who rode in point-to-points, so she grew up in it. A school holiday job in Mick Channon's yard; after school, work for the dual-purpose trainer Alan King and a few rides as an amateur on the flat and over hurdles. Her first win was a point-to-point on Lady De Paris at Tweseldown in 2007. A brief apprenticeship to Mark Usher followed, then three years as secretary and work rider to Clive Cox in Lambourn — riding work, a few races, and going nowhere fast.
The move: In 2014 she came to Sydney on a working holiday and spent two months at the yard of James and Bart Cummings. She stayed — and became an apprentice for Gai Waterhouse. First winner in 2015; the 2016/17 Sydney Champion Apprentice title with 88 winners. The stable she rides for this week is the one that gave her the start.
The Group races: Her first black-type win came in March 2018 — Lanciato in the Group 3 Newcastle Newmarket for Mark Newnham. Seven months later, her first Group 1: Maid Of Heaven in the Spring Champion Stakes, again for Newnham. Just over three years from arriving in the country.
The history: The 2022 Sydney Cup on Knights Order for Waterhouse and Bott was a first in Australian racing: a female jockey riding a top-level winner for a female trainer. Since then the Metropolitan on Just Fine (2023) — part of the first day in Australia with two female Group 1 winners, alongside Kathy O'Hara's Epsom — the Tancred on Arapaho (2023), and the Coolmore Stud Stakes on Ozzmosis (2023), where she became the first woman to win that race. A second Sydney Cup followed in 2025, again on Arapaho.
The other code: In 2023 she was invited to Japan for the World All-Star Jockeys championship and finished second, one point behind Mirai Iwata — and she has a Group 1 win there as well. Saudi Arabia and her home country are also on the list. Very few riders in this country have top-level wins in more than one jurisdiction.
The Baker connection: She is married to Luke Hilton, Bjorn Baker's foreman, and that association has produced Group 1 winners on Ozzmosis, Arapaho, Green Spaces and twice with Warwoven. Baker's own line is the right one: he has always seen her as a jockey, not a female jockey.
Where she is now: 2026 has been the best year of her career. Green Spaces in the Australian Derby made her the first woman to ride the Derby winner; Warwoven won her the Golden Rose and then the Caulfield Guineas in October — the first woman to ride that winner, and her tenth Group 1 counting Japan. This season she has 42 winners from 273 rides, almost all of them in Sydney: twelve at Warwick Farm, nine at Rosehill, six apiece at Randwick and Hawkesbury. Last week: thirteen rides, two winners, both at Flemington, and a third for Waterhouse and Bott on Cup day aboard Harry Lime.
- 2007 — first win, a point-to-point on Lady De Paris at Tweseldown
- 2014 — Sydney on a working holiday · two months with the Cummingses
- 2015 — first Australian winner, apprenticed to Gai Waterhouse
- 2016/17 — Sydney Champion Apprentice, 88 winners
- 2018 — first Group race (Lanciato, G3 Newcastle Newmarket) · first Group 1 (Maid Of Heaven, Spring Champion Stakes)
- 2022 — Sydney Cup (Knights Order) for Waterhouse & Bott — the first female jockey to ride an Australian Group 1 winner for a female trainer
- 2023 — Metropolitan (Just Fine) · Tancred (Arapaho) · Coolmore Stud Stakes (Ozzmosis), the first woman to win it · second in Japan's World All-Star Jockeys
- 2025 — Sydney Cup (Arapaho)
- 2026 — Australian Derby (Green Spaces) · Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas (Warwoven) — first woman to ride the Guineas winner, tenth Group 1
- Week of 9 November — winners at Flemington on Youre Not The King and on Waterhouse & Bott's Superfabulistic