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Time is running out for Gai Waterhouse to keep intact the longest sequence of Group One wins among Australia’s current training ranks.
Waterhouse has trained at least one Group One winner in every season since she was granted a training licence in 1992.
She won her first G1 race within months of kicking off her training career when Te Aku Nick won the AJC Metropolitan at Randwick in the spring of 1992.
Her G1 tally now stands at 139 wins, the last five in partnership with her co-trainer Adrian Bott, to be Australia’s current leading trainer of G1 winners.
Only two legends of Australian racing - her late father Tommy Smith (282 wins in 55 seasons) and his great rival Bart Cummings (268 including two with his grandson James Cummings spanning 60 seasons) - are credited with more G1 wins during their careers.
Behind Waterhouse on the all-time G1 ladder are Lee Freedman (127), John Hawkes (112 including 16 in partnership with his sons Michael and Wayne) and Chris Waller (101).
The fact that Waller has racked up a century of G1 wins in 11 seasons since his first major success in 2008 points to him overhauling Waterhouse in the next three or four seasons – providing he keeps training in Australia - and ultimately challenging the records of Smith and Cummings.
However the current concern for Waterhouse is ending her G1 drought as she hasn’t tasted success at the elite level since a Brisbane carnival double last winter when English won the Doomben Ten Thousand and Prompt Response took out the Tatts Tiara.
While it’s been another reasonably strong season of black type results in the lower tiers for the Waterhouse/Bott stable there are only another six G1 races – all in Brisbane – to be run this season, limiting the opportunities the intensely proud Waterhouse has to extend her 28-year run of G1 success.
Her next chance to keep her G1 sequence alive comes at Eagle Farm on Saturday where she has the imported mare Con Te Partiro entered for the $700,000 Kingsford Smith Cup (1300m).
The former American stakeswinner made a winning Australian debut at the Scone carnival in the G3 Dark Jewel Classic on May 11 and is now seeking a valuable G1 win in Brisbane before she is retired to stud.
Beyond the Kingsford Smith Cup Con Te Partiro is the lone entry from the Waterhouse/Bott stable for the $1.5 million Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) on June 8.
She also has the last G1 race of the season, the $500,000 Tatts Tiara (1400m) for fillies and mares on June 22, on her agenda before the curtain comes down on her career.
The 3YO classic double, the $500,00 Queensland Oaks (2200m) on June 1 and $600,000 Queensland Derby (2400m) on June 8, and the $600,000 JJ Atkins (1600m) for the two-year-olds on June 8 are the other races at the Brisbane carnival that complete the G1 season.
These are events in past years where Waterhouse has traditionally held a strong hand and she could still be a player this season with 11 youngsters from her stable nominated for the JJ Atkins, four nominations remaining in the Derby including the VRC St Leger winner Transact and three fillies in the Oaks.
Waterhouse and Bott have won three G2 races, 10 G3 events and five Listed Races this season among their 99 wins Australia-wide this season to sit in 12th place on the national table. They are fifth on the Sydney premiership with 83 wins.
Waterhouse’s continuous 28-year run of G1 wins includes many highlights, not the least being crowned Australia’s leading G1 trainer three times outright and sharing that honour twice. Her best seasons were 2004/05 and 2006/07 when she won 11 majors in both terms.
Her G1 record includes six Golden Slipper wins, seven Doncaster Miles, eight ATC Metropolitans, nine Flight Stakes, eight Epsom Handicaps and her coveted Melbourne Cup win with Fiorente in 2015 when she became the first Australian female trainer to win the great race.
The seven-time Sydney premiership winner also became the first and only trainer to prepare the trifecta in the Golden Slipper Stakes in 2001 and two of her Slipper winners Dance Hero and Pierro won Sydney’s 2YO Triple Crown.
She joined her father in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2007.