Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse has denied allegations by John Singleton he had information high profile mare More Joyous could not win Saturday’s All Aged Stakes at Randwick.
Singleton launched an extraordinary public attack on the bookie and his mother Gai Waterhouse, the trainer of More Joyous, after his horse finished out of the placings in the Group One race won by glamour colt All Too Hard.
The two had been vying for favouritism in the lead-up, with All Too Hard starting at $2.80 and More Joyous at $3.
Singleton, who immediately sacked Gai Waterhouse as his trainer, said he had been prepared to have $100,000 on More Joyous until he was told by close friends that Tom Waterhouse said there was a problem with the mare.
“I never said to anyone that I thought that More Joyous was injured,” Tom Waterhouse told TVN’s Racing Review on Sunday.
“I backed More Joyous. I thought Epaulette was the value in the race and I backed Rain Affair.”
A snapshot of Waterhouse’s ledger showed All Too Hard was a losing result for him.
“All Too Hard was backed off the map. I laid All Too Hard till the cows came home,” Waterhouse said.
“Rain Affair was by far and away my best result. More Joyous takes out $4500, All Too Hard takes out $300,000 and something and Epaulette takes out $60,000.
“More Joyous is a 300-and-something-thousand dollar better result than All Too Hard.”
Gai Waterhouse told a stewards inquiry after the race More Joyous had been treated with an antibiotic on Thursday morning after she was found to have heat in her neck, something that was considered minor.
The mare was examined by stable vet Leanne Begg and Singleton’s vet John Peatfield on Saturday morning and both declared her fit to run.
On Sunday morning Singleton took custody of his seven horses at Waterhouse’s Randwick stable.
He is expected to announce new trainers for the horses in the coming days.
Singleton and Gai Waterhouse have been at odds since the spring when the trainer selected barrier 11 for More Joyous in the Cox Plate in which she was unplaced.
An uneasy truce has existed between the pair during the autumn.
More Joyous had three Group One starts, finishing second to stablemate Pierro in the Canterbury Stakes and out of the money in the Queen Of The Turf and the All Aged Stakes.
Waterhouse has trained the six-year-old to 21 wins, eight at Group One level, from 33 starts.
