The powerhouse combination of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott teamed up for their first joint Slipper winner just four years ago with Farnan, and such is their dominance in racing’s juvenile features that they fielded no fewer than six of Saturday’s field. That tipped Waterhouse well over a half century of lifetime Slipper runners – more than enough experience for the master trainer to know that it doesn’t always go to plan.
It’s fair to say that the pre-race talk had concentrated on the stable’s favourite, Storm Boy (Justify {USA}), but it was their sole filly in the race, Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon), who emerged from the pack late under Blake Shinn to deny Coleman (Pierata) by 0.2l, with Storm Boy far from disgraced a further 1.3l back in third having missed the kick early on.
The significance of training a Slipper winner for Sir Owen Glenn, who bred and races Lady Of Camelot under his Go Bloodstock banner (one of just three homebreds in the field), was not lost on Bott.
“I owe so much to my training partner in Gai Waterhouse,” he said. “I can’t tell you how special it is to do it alongside her.
“To be entrusted with a valuable filly like this (by Sir Owen) at the start of my career in the partnership and to win another Slipper alongside Gai…it’s been fantastic.”
A Slipper victory is a feather in the cap of Sir Owen’s Fastnet Rock mare Miss Debutante. With Lady Of Camelot just her third named foal, the first is the tough G3 Widden S. winner Queen Of The Ball (I Am Invincible) whilst the second was another top juvenile for Waterhouse and Bott in their G3 Gimcrack S. winner and G2 Silver Slipper S. runner-up Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar).
With such a show of force in a race that garners so much attention, both before and after its running, the art of diplomacy luckily seems to come naturally to Bott. So far this season, he and Waterhouse have won 22 juvenile races at an incredible strike rate of 28.6 per cent (with 61 per cent in the placings).
First winning the world’s richest 2-year-old race back in 2016 aboard Capitalist – Written Tycoon‘s only other winner of the race – winning jockey Blake Shinn had plenty to thank his trainers for in gaining his second victory in the race having returned from Hong Kong’s ranks.
“To do it for them, it’s very special,” he said. “…you come to a Golden Slipper, most horses are going well into the race and you just need a bit of luck.
“I’m lucky in the respect that I’ve got Gai and Adrian training arguably the best 2-year-olds in the world. (I’m) just honoured to get the ride.
“Sir Owen Glenn, Newgate Farm who raised her, Steve O’Connor who works for Sir Owen – it’s a big team effort.”
Having been denied in the G1 Blue Diamond S., Lady Of Camelot’s Slipper win brings her sire Written Tycoon to 15 individual Group 1 winners – his second Group 1-winning juvenile of the season following Velocious’ win in the Sistema S. over in New Zealand.
This article was written by Keely Mckitterick and Oswald Wedmore for TTR AusNZ.
