It's All Go at Royal Randwick

It's that time of the year again for the 2017 Sydney Carnival, a six week program of world-class racing entertainment from 11 March to 15 April 2017 at Rosehill Gardens and Royal Randwick.

The Sydney Turf Club invited some of Australia’s most respected racing figures to a small shindig at Randwick to celebrate the event and Whisper's spy disguised as a Colorful Racing Identity slipped in to check out the evening. Among the guests : racing, trainer Gai Waterhouse, NSW leading Provincial trainer Kris Lees, and champion jockey Hugh Bowman joined actress and AACTA Award winner, Elizabeth Debicki, actor and member of Swing On This, Ben Mingay, 800 Words star, Melina Vidler, model Montana Cox, Ginger & Smart designers, Alexandra and Genevieve Smart and radio hosts, Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael Wipfli were named as Sydney Carnival ambassadors for 2017.

Wow! And many of them are there in our beautiful snaps from the evening. And what glorious weather it should be. Not too hot nor cold and lovely blue skies. Rosehill is perfect if you hail from west Sydney, located right near Parramatta and Whisper's course of choice Royal Randwick is so handy for the Eastern Suburbs with plenty of parking. There are always lots of things happening at the racecourse during this carnival so get there early. You can check on the Turf Club's website for activities here.

Men & the Melbourne Cup

Our exclusive photo from yesterday's great race : bookmaker Tom Waterhouse and his dad Robbie Waterhouse with the famous Melbourne Cup after mum & wife Gai Waterhouse's great win with Fiorente.

Tom's Woes

At the Zegna party : Luke Ricketson,Kate Waterhosue, Hoda & Tom Waterhouse

Arriving at the gala Emermenigildo Zegna 50th year celebration fashion parade at the Royal Hall of Industries on Tuesday, top bookmaker Tom Waterhouse was his cheery smiling self, shaking hands and implacable as always, even as the Shuttle greeted him with "ahhh..the infamous Tom Waterhouse". It received a hearty laugh from his group that included lovely wife and new mother Hoda, sister  Kate Waterhouse and he husband footballer Luke Ricketson.

But if Tom didn't have enough troubles with all sorts of inaccurate claims flying about the airwaves about his on-screen appearances at racing meets, a new calamity has just hit the fan.

Tom's Instagram post.

Yesterday media mogul John Singleton had an on-air spat with Tom's mum, the successful racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse and accused her of 'leaking' information about his horse More Joyous to son Tom.
"Not so" says Gai but Singleton stormed off announcing he would pull all his horses from Gai's stables. Such drama, especially as Gai has successfully trained numerous winners for Singleton over the years.

Gai Waterhouse, husband Robbie with  Hoda & Tom

Singleton (right) withBob Hawke

 Singleton says Gai leaked details that his top nag More Joyous wasn't in top form to Tom and mutual friends repeated the claim back to Singleton  who then refrained from placing $100,000 on his own horse to win. Tom says via Instagram, he was taking bets all day on More Joyous and it was business as usual and he lost around $300,000 on the race.
Instant update : The matter goes from bad to worse : Tom has called in the libel lawyers and racing officials are demanding an Independent Inquiry before a retired judge. Where is Sir Laurence Street when we need him?

Photo Finish !



Gai & Robbie Waterhouse, Hoda Vakili and Tom Waterhouse



Too many parties, too much champagne !.

Our discovery of the week : a travelling cocktail cabinet filled with Pommery Champagne. This we like.



The gorgeous Racheal Finch



It was at the  hot young bookmaker Tom Waterhouse's launch of his betting website at the Beach Haus nightclub in Kings Cross : http://www.tomwaterhouse.com/ : online betting.

Tom's family has been in the horse racing game for over 100 years. His mum Gai Waterhouse is Australia's (and one of the world's) top trainers who has trained so many winners she has billionaires and Middle East potentates battering down her door to have her train their stallions at her stud.



Terri Biviano & Tim Holmes a` Court

His dad is Robbie Waterhouse who had a slight mis-hap with a nag named Fine Cotton. Something about daubing it with paint and a substitution  horse. A few million bucks was won on the betting tote. The whole scheme came crashing down and Robbie was 'warned off' the course for awhile but he's back in business.



a Pommery cabinet !



But it's young Tom who has taken over the family mantle and he gave me a few tips for the track :

"it's always easier to back winners in the first half of a race meeting"-"if the track is heavy and the favourite is odds on, get on"- "if you like a horse and you are surprised the odds are longer than you expected, don't alter your bet, bet the amount you intended. Value is king"

So there it is, straight from the horse's mouth as they say.

                                             

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OK, enough already !. We've had a few dozen emails demanding to see our snaps of gal about town Sharon Sargeant who took the ritzy Black and White Ball crowd by storm in her glittering red outfit.



Here are 2 to go on with.  Sharon is launching her own website soon so check back for the address. She promises us you won't be disappointed.



The Parliamentarian who makes grown men tremble-Bronwyn Bishop MP & B&W president Sue Diver

# A special mention must go to Tamburlaine Organic Wines (alcoholic !) from the Hunter Valley who supplied their superb tipple at the Black & White Ball. Visit their website :  http://www.mywinery.com/. Not only  a very nice drop, healthy to boot !
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The Quay Restaurant is world famous. This year it was voted Number 27 on the coveted S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s list, to become the highest ranked Australian restaurant in the world, as well as rewriting Australian restaurant award history by scoring a “double double” win, having been named Restaurant of The Year for the second consecutive year in the industry’s two top awards, the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2010 and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010.



Leon & Margaret Fink



Chef Peter Gilmore & John Fink



So of course you would be stark raving mad to miss a book launch there especially when it's a recipe book by the famed head chef at the Quay, Peter Gilmore.

You know the nibbles will be superb, the Bollinger chilled to perfection and the crowd friendly. The only thing missing were some of the restaurant's regular clients when in town-David Bowie, Gordon Ramsay, Mick Jagger and King Constantine II of Greece.



our favourite Murdoch family member-Matt Handbury and partner Clare



The Quay is owned by Leon Fink and run by his son John. John's mum is the film producer Margaret Fink who produced Candy with Heath Ledger and My Brilliant Career (for which she won an Academy Award )and which launched the careers of Judy Davis and Sam Neil.



The view from The Quay Restaurant