Gai Waterhouse in $2 million development around failed Melbourne Cup favourite Vauban

Gai Waterhouse has achieved almost everything in horse racing but the top of her to-do list is to win another Melbourne Cup triumph. The queen of Australian racing has only one Melbourne Cup on her training resume, Fiorente in 2013, and has ramped up her efforts to add another next year by forking out a reported $2 million for this year's favourite Vauban.

Waterhouse trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, and the pair had just the outsider Just Fine in this year's race. But they made it clear on Cup week that they were looking towards next year and beyond. In the last month, the team acquired two European stayers in the Tattersalls Horses In Training sale in the UK, with the sole purpose of targeting them for the 2025 Cup. It included Delius, a son of the champion sire Frankel, who sold for more than $2.7m.

RSN reported on Tuesday that the training pair had set their sights on Vauban, despite the Irish stayer failing to produce on the big stage in back-to-back years where it started favourite on each occasion. The Willie Mullins-trained seven-year-old entered last year's Cup as the overwhelming favourite but fell well short of expectations finishing in the back half of the field. The poor performance was put down to the sweltering Melbourne heat. And in 2024, Vauban sweated up pre-race once again. However, it loomed into the race on the turn but once again faded badly to finish near the rear.

But the belief is if it gets used to the Aussie heat and racing conditions it can not only take out next year's Cup but a string of other major staying races in the southern hemisphere. And due to this, Waterhouse and Bott were willing to fork out a seven-figure sum to secure the star seven-year-old.

"There's some rumours going around I guess you could call them, well they are a lot stronger than just rumours that Vauban is going to stay here in Australia," Matt Nevett said on RSN on Tuesday. "It's looking likely as it's being shopped around... The rumours are Tulloch Lodge (Waterhouse and Bott's stable) For a very big price."

Channel 10's Melbourne Cup host Michael Felgate added: "We're talking well and truly seven figures plus." "So I think they are just finalising the deal now to have Vauban remain out here. Look at Okita Soushi when they have twelve months here with an Australian trainer, trained differently to get a little bit more speed in the legs and they can jump out of the ground."

And the deal was finalised on Wednesday, with the fee quoted at around the $2 million mark. Waterhouse and Bott will now take over training of the Irish stayer from Willie Mullins with early expectations Vauban could take in an autumn campaign before being set for a third Melbourne Cup.

Gai Waterhouse dismisses Melbourne Cup claims

Legendary sports commentator Bruce McAvaney said in the lead-up to this year's cup the phrase 'the race that stops the nation' is no longer accurate as he believes the love for Australia's great race is diminishing. McAvaney told racing website The Straight that as a result of rival events such as the Everest and the increase of people "aggressively opposed to racing" the excitement surrounding the first Tuesday in November is declining year after year.

McAvaney says he has seen the great race fall off the perch throughout the years and believes much of the iconic Flemington race's aura is no longer there. "The Melbourne Cup will always be the greatest prize ... but it no longer stops the nation," McAvaney told The Straight.

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However, Waterhouse doesn't believe that is accurate at all. "It's the history of it all. It's still the race that stops a nation," she told Racenet last month. And the queen of Australian racing says as a lover of the sport the Cup is still the pinnacle. "It means everything to me," Waterhouse said of Cup Week in Melbourne.

"I think it's still the race to win, that's why I love it. That's why I want to win another one. I look at it (the 2013 trophy), it gives me inspiration to keep coming back again and again, year after year. I think this is the race that everyone still wants to win."