Gai targets invaders Just minutes after achieving her first Melbourne Cup success and becoming only the second woman trainer to win the race in its 153-year history, Gai Waterhouse was immediately on the front foot urging race clubs around Australia to cater for staying horses. With another imported stayer, Fiorente, taking Australia's most important race, Waterhouse highlighted the need to fend off European horses who are regularly winning our races and begin programming events to nurture potential staying stars. Of course they have got to start programming events for our stayers coming up. At the moment, they are ignoring those middle-order racehorses who go on to be great stayers," she said. A triumphant Damien Oliver rides his third Melbourne Cup winner, Fiorente, past the cheering crowd at Flemington. I've just got another two or three European horses in my yard and I think in the case of one of them I could have sold and resold it over six times. Waterhouse said that after Fiorente finished second in last year's Melbourne Cup, she knew the race was within her grasp and decided to leave the import in Melbourne for the spring carnival. While it meant the stallion would be away from her Sydney base, there was more than a touch of irony in her decision. In 1981, her father, TJ Smith, one of Australia's greatest trainers, was persuaded by owner Lloyd Williams to keep Just A Dash in Melbourne for the entire spring. He went on to win the Cup. And Waterhouse admitted she had had discussions with Williams in the training of Fiorente heading into yesterday's cup. Nick Williams said he and his father believed that yesterday's victory was a fitting tribute to Waterhouse's commitment to hard work. We are just so pleased that she's won the race. She has been an integral part of horse racing in Australia and she has single-handedly kept racing at the very best of all sports. "We couldn't be happier to see her win the race," said Williams, whose father had six runners in Tuesday's Cup. Waterhouse said some Australian trainers had been keen to purchase Fiorente early last year - on behalf of their syndicates - when it became known the horse was for sale. It is understood the purchase fee of $1.1million was achieved after a hefty bidding war between several trainers, which Waterhouse won. Another Melbourne Cup-winning trainer, Mike Moroney, is believed to have been the eventual underbidder. Asked if she would now slow down her hectic lifestyle running one of the biggest and most influential stables in Australia, Waterhouse said: "No, but I do want to be a better grandmother." Some took the statement as a sign she may be cutting down her team, but she replied: "No, I want to be a better grandmother and don't worry, I've worn two hats for nearly 20 years." Waterhouse reflected that on Tuesday morning memories of her father came flooding back as she prepared to take Fiorente to Flemington. I wonder what he would be thinking, his daughter with a favourite for the Melbourne Cup. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about Dad and how he would have been seeing me win a Melbourne Cup. Waterhouse said her team of stayers would again be built with a view to next year's Melbourne Cup and admitted the media placed an enormous pressure on trainers to win the Cup. Before a crowd of more than 104,000, Fiorente charged away after a measured and brilliant ride by Damien Oliver, who was outed for 10 months just a week after last year's Cup for placing a bet on another horse in a race in which he was riding. "I knew I'd be here," Oliver said. I didn't think I'd be on as strong a chance as this. There's not a second goes by that I don't realise how fortunate I am. You never know, you never expect anything in this game. I was determined to work hard and prove myself again. I think a lot of people in the industry have been really welcoming, I can't thank them enough for that. [I] never really look at the finish line, but I've won three Melbourne Cups in three decades now. I'm not sure if I'll still be riding in the next one. You just have to pinch yourself to think you've won three Melbourne Cups, it's pretty special. Leading rails bookmaker Alan Eskander said it was a Melbourne Cup result of great financial contrast. Fiorente, who was at $17 earlier this year and was heavily backed to start the $7 favourite, delivered a body blow to bookmakers. However, had runner-up Red Cadeaux, having its third start in a Melbourne Cup been successful, it would have been a complete skinner for bookmakers. "He's run second twice in three years and if he'd been successful at least once, it would have been a dream result for all of us," he said.