Punters slipping in for a free drink
Punters at Saturday’s Golden Slipper have an added incentive to hope the fairy-tale ending to the rich race meeting becomes reality, with a free drink on offer if Gai Waterhouse’s Kiss and Make Up brings home a win.
Thousands of people have arrived at Sydney’s Rosehill Racecourse for the 60th running of the Golden Slipper, Australia’s richest race for two-year-olds.
All eyes will be on two veterans of the racing scene for the $3.5 million race – Waterhouse and her fellow owner in Kiss and Make Up, millionaire John Singleton – after Singleton’s offer to shout the bar if the colt wins.
Kiss and Make Up – aptly named as the horse that marked the reunion of owner Singleton and trainer Waterhouse after a bitter and very public falling out in 2013 – has enjoyed public attention but the favoured runner for the Slipper remains Victorian colt Extreme Choice, just ahead of stablemate Flying Artie.
Waterhouse has two horses running in Saturday afternoon’s Slipper – Kiss and Make Up and Scarlet Rain.
A win for either will take Gai to seven Golden Slipper wins, eclipsing the record held by her famed trainer father Tommy Smith.