The $3.5 million Golden Slipper has delivered a fairytale ending with champion jockey Tommy Berry guiding Vancouver to a win and a record-equalling sixth Slipper for trainer Gai Waterhouse.
Berry also added a second Slipper to his own trophy count with the victory, which was an emotional one less than a year on from the tragic death of his twin brother and fellow jockey Nathan.
“It was an emotional day – I don’t think I’ve got any tears left,” Berry said after the race.
“Even though he’s not here, he’s the biggest part of my life,” he said of Nathan, who died after a severe illness in April, 2014.
Emotions were running high for Waterhouse too – the record she equalled was held by her famous father, the late TJ Smith.
Waterhouse said she was driven to win the Slipper – the richest two-year-old race in the world – by the last thing her father said to her before his sudden death in 1998.
“He said ‘you make a man sick, you can’t train the two-year-olds’,” Waterhouse said after the race.
“So when he passed away only two days after, I said `I’m never going to let that be my thing’ – that was the driving force for me.”
Another Waterhouse-trained filly, English, took second place in the Slipper, followed by the John Hawkes-trained Lake Geneva.
It was a big Slipper Day overall for Waterhouse, who had only just left the winner’s circle after her mare Sweet Idea won Race 6, the $400,000 Canadian Club Galaxy with Blake Shinn at the reins.