It's minutes before the start of the MRC Foundation Cup at Caulfield where the mounting yard feels like the old Heath, shielded by the soon to be gone grandstand from the needed afternoon sun, the chilled spring air hiding bubbling warm enthusiasm and a bustling expectant crowd of Caulfield Cup hopefuls and charity partners.
And there is Gai. Foundation Day is one for first names (for the trivia quizzers, Gabriel is her actual first name) and reverence. And charity, many of whose 16 representatives are included in the pre-race sting, add to the traffic jam.
More on that importance to come.
Naturally, Gai is sensibly dressed (tracksuits, track shoes, overcoats – stylish to be sure) for the occasion, an accomplished hand knowing Caulfield in spring can be like an Everest base camp and she has Goldman, already qualified for the first Tuesday in November, Alligator Blood to come, and as popular as Taylor Swift but with an all-access pass backstage for the fans. And of course, there are many.
She is easier to get to than a grand final ticket for a Collingwood fan and embraces every opportunity to do so. Meet the fans that is!
I'm around her as our charity Pinchapoo shares the revered Pin And Win partnership with the Melbourne Racing Club and Gai has been a long term supporter of our work, but on the Caulfield's Foundation family race day, I am forever marvelling at Gai's natural people skills that can never be impersonated. And nor can she.
Jockeys are walking around, owners are looking for them, instructions and speed maps are shared like chess moves as if state secrets and there is Gai, posing for selfies.
Her job with Goldman and Jordan Childs is done and no doubt you can guess the rough tactics.
Those who perhaps were unknown walk up to Gai among all this and say they have a Darby Racing share in Goldman, and this is my "Marmaduke" and can we get a photo and are then treated like lifelong friends before the snap that will be endlessly socially shared no doubt and means so much to all involved.
Including Gai.
There is no army of minders to push or pull, stage or shield the crowd, or say no when a yes is an easy second's work for Gai, for the record soon to be officially elevated to legend status in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, when those who really know and matter, the fans, the punters, have known such for a long time.
As does Gai, without any fuss but is forever fussy over everybody else. She's a mother and a grandmother (five times over), 69 years old to be sure, but never one for retirement and racing is always better for her and she is never drained by it.
She is our best ambassador, not just the most recognisable, but simply the most real. There she is Sunday morning at the VRC's excellent Flemington stable tour initiative, showing off Alligator Blood the day after her 155th Group 1 victory as well as hawking the best of the sport and how getting involved is so easy and so much fun and if not, she will make it so.
And then she'd produce a Derby prospect – Gold Bullion at Flemington on Preview's Day on Sunday.
But of course, just as Taylor Swift delivered a predictable encore, Gai calls ‘The Goat' on stage for a back-up on Saturday at Caulfield and that is now 129 Group 1 wins for "OIlie" on the main stage, a sixth for Alligator Blood, but there was just a Castle-like "Vibe" about it all.
Don't worry about Mr Brightside, so far, The Blood's nemesis this spring, that signature tune around him including retiring Richmond giant Jack Riewoldt, who was also at Caulfield, being dunked for charity alongside The Block's Blockinator Keith "The Foreman" Schleiger. It was that sort of day. Keith an ambassador like me – for Pinchapoo.
Riewoldt is a share owner in Soulcombe, which ran a very respectable ‘tick-over' effort in Alligator Blood's Underwood. He will be a player this spring, Soulcombe under handicaps, Riewoldt looking at his future in the Tasmanian expansion team but knowing he was helping the MRC Foundation by wearing the same clothes he was shamed for wearing when Soulcombe won last start, to be dunked by former Tiger teammate Tom Lynch on Saturday.
So, to charity, and the MRC Foundation Day – that ran alongside Gai's showcase Alligator Blood Group 1.
The MRC Foundation engaged with 16 charities on this day – all other race clubs are well aware of not just the need for community engagements, but developing the real outcomes, as they should, and race days like Saturday allow it and flourish with it.
As the ultimate professional leader Brooke Dawson – the practical Melbourne Racing Club Foundation chairman – says in her committee room address: "The MRC Foundation aims to assist registered charities and local community organisations through a range of charitable initiatives."
The Foundation race day, rebadged to align with the quality racing headlined by the Underwood, is the club's primary fundraiser and it generates over $250,000 for the partner charities.
There is a prizemoney share for the placegetters in the Foundation Cup and it was charity Very Special Kids that came up with the winner drawing Uncle Bryn in the random draw and with that win, they get $20,000 for their vital work.
Having visited the Very Special Kids hospice numerous times over the years with another great racing ambassador Subzero and Graham Salisbury and it's not a place you wish to visit by fate, but their work in providing holistic palliative care for children and young people, will benefit greatly as a not-for-profit.
Living Legends got $10,000 and the Les Twentymen Foundation received $5000 for the placegetters Floating Artist and Alaskan God but all the charities will share from the range of other fundraising of the day.
Both Flemington and Moonee Valley are also heavily involved in and invest in local and community charity work, the Victoria Racing Club's Pin And Win with $188,000 in prizes including a Lexus benefits the Australian Childhood Foundation but they are also involved with industry and animal welfare as well as community health. Living legends, the National Jockey's Trust, CARM (Child and Racehorse Movement), Riding for the Disabled, the Good Friday Appeal and Racing Hearts just some of those.
At The Valley, their stylish Cox Plate pins are sold to benefit the Make A Wish Foundation, which has some 800 kids on their wish journey alongside the clubs local partners.
As racing suffers a decline in turnover and revenue and the social licence remains forever tested not just from wagering but from equine welfare and perception, days like Saturday at Caulfield should be widely highlighted.
Personally, from a Pinchapoo point of view, our ability to share the message of challenging the Australia wide crisis that is hygiene poverty, gets a vehicle via the MRC Foundation partnership.
That's not to view from afar with admiration of the star quality married with humbleness of Joao Moriera, while being able to see Gai at work (she'd say pleasure), both on and off the track.
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