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?

Zegna Rules

As far as parties go it was a memorable event. Ermenigildo Zegna, the Italian fashion brand flew in 200 international fashion journalists and 40 staff from around Asia to celebrate along with 1000 local guests, 50 years of buying Australia's finest wool for their suits.

You can see the importance Zegna places upon their Aussie contacts : there were 2 entrances for guests. One for the bulk of guests and  a VIP black carpet for local show biz types, Hollywood movies stars like Chris Hemsworth and Asian movie stars Leon Lai and Daniel Henney and the farmers. They tend to be unsophisticated types with ruddy red faces from working the land and calloused hands but they really are the VIPs as far as the Zegna family are concerned. Count Paolo Zegna and his brother Gildo Zegna the CEO of the family company flitted from the VIPs to the farmers paying homage to both.

Only the Roya Hall of Industries in Moore Park could cope with this many guests which it did admirably with first a cocktail party section, an catwalk area and an after party room. Performing were Temper Trap and DJ’s Robyn Lawley and Alex Dimitriades. MC for the night was supermodel Megan Gale (she's a big star in Italy !).
 Amongst the guests : Kerri Anne Kennerley. Benji Marshall, David Campbell, George Negus and Kate Waterhouse.

Carla Zampatti and Alex Dimitriades

Gildo Zegna Megan Gale and Count Paolo Zegna

    Sandra Sully                         David & Lisa Campbell                                              Leon Lai

bales of that precious wool