Gai Waterhouse at Warrnambool Gai puts on brave face after Singleton stoush Gai Waterhouse quips about her acting ambitions at the Warrnambool Cup, appearing upbeat after her falling out with radio magnate John Singleton. Waterhouse watchers had a field day at Warrnambool on Tuesday as the first lady of racing, who is at the centre of a he-said, she-said storm with prominent owner John Singleton, entertained a capacity crowd of the town's women at what was billed as a "ladies only lunch" at the racetrack. Every remark she uttered at the lunch was analysed for its significance in the midst of the More Joyous brouhaha. Stephanie Chambers with Gai Waterhouse at the Warrnambool races on Tuesday. Photo: Mary Alexander "Put your head down, keep your bum up, keep your mouth shut and that's the key to success," Waterhouse said. Referring to her early years as a trainer - when she had to convince her famous father, T.J. Smith, that training horses was really what she wanted to do - she quipped: "I didn't realise it was going to be so difficult." Was this a cryptic reference to the showdown with Singo in the Randwick mounting yard over the health and well being of star galloper More Joyous? Gai Waterhouse at Warrnambool. The mare's failure in the All Aged Stakes at Randwick on Saturday precipitated the drama which is now the subject of a NSW stewards inquiry involving the trainer, her bookmaker son Tom and the advertising guru who the following day removed More Joyous from Waterhouse's Randwick yard. The trainer had a long-standing commitment to come to the 'Bool as she had planned to have a runner at the carnival, hurdler The Nemesis. The former NZ-trained galloper went amiss and was a scratching weeks ago, but that didn't deter the champion Sydney trainer from heading south. She has been at the centre of a media frenzy since Saturday, and while she was happy to do a short stand-up interview in front of the cameras about racing, the carnival, how much she was in favour of jumps racing and how great it was to be at the track, she refused to discuss the Singleton affair. When asked "Have you been defamed?" by a TV journalist, she promptly turned on her heels and walked away, only stopping to talk again when a racing question was directed her way. Virtually all media were banned from the lunch, in an open-sided marquee, so the majority of written press and TV camera crews had to stand behind a white picket fence, straining to hear her words over a loudspeaker, which was itself drowned out by the racecourse broadcasters as horses thundered by. MC Rob Gaylard gave up the unequal battle, hosting the Waterhouse talkfest in two sections, between races. In this sort of situation all words and phrases were digested for significance by the media throng. Was she backing her bookmaker son Tom and his high-profile bookmaking business when she said that, like herself, he just wanted to please his father? That father is Robbie Waterhouse, the bookmaker who was once warned off for his alleged involvement in a race-fixing scandal in the 1980s. And when she told the audience that "it's not hard getting to the top, it's hard staying at the top" was she referring to her current trying circumstances? Like all Waterhouse watchers, the analysts will read, listen, digest and make their call. And the lady will front up again the next day, bouncing with optimism and plans for the future. She can certainly be sure that she has pleased her father, famous trainer T.J. Smith. with Mary Alexander, Warnambool Standard