And Duly Won

The colt Vancouver did indeed win the Golden Slipper today, giving Gai Waterhouse her sixth Golden Slipper victory, equaling the record of her father Tommy Smith, who is regarded as Australia's greatest ever race horse trainer. One has to bear in mind the lamp-lighting role that trainers from earlier eras had, and so it is difficult to compare with mathematical certainty today's trainers to those of the past - but in my own view, the daughter has surpassed her illustrious father already, and history will place her on as high a pedestal.

Gai Watyerhouse,
Australia's greatest race horse trainer

Vancouver not only won but paid a fairly decent price for such a good thing - 2/1 in many books. Basically you got double your money for the win plus your own stake back.

The Rosehill (Sydney) Golden Slipper is the richest two-year old 1200 meter race in the world, being a 3.5 million dollar race.

These things are nerve-wracking affairs because of the value to the owners and breeders of the win, and it certainly sounded from the immediate after-race interview of the jockey Tommy Berry, that it was a very emotional victory for him for multiple reasons.

For a dyed-in-the-wool gambler like myself, post-race activities are just as much part of the whole deal as the race itself and all of its nail-biting angst. 

At Sydney's 'Prime' Restaurant

The sun goes down, the crowd goes home, the gambler sizes up the day, finds the best place to eat and drink - and to think about life - and waits for the river of time to slowly wend its way back around to the same starting place all over again...

The problem that the entire world of investing makes all of the time, is that winning is a lonely profession... Not only does the shoe not fit everyone, there is no university course that guarantees you will be a millionaire in thirty minutes just by drinking coffees. And there is a massive difference between those who are in the papers today as 'billionaires' and you never hear of them again when times change. The Riverboat Gambler is always stalking the wooden boards at twilight. What does he know, that the others don't?