Gai Waterhouse: 'This is a gambling industry and needs to be promoted that way'

There is a touch of the Nicky Hendersons about Gai Waterhouse. She is fully engaged in the conversation and totally engaging to listen to, but you can sense there's a million things simultaneously whizzing around her brain. Even amid a three-month sabbatical from training in Australia, sitting in one place for too long would be time wasted in her book.

"I'll be with you in a minute, I've just got to text my owners," says Waterhouse as I arrive at the stunning New England Stud in Newmarket, home to the queen of Australian racing and her husband Robbie on this leg of their busman's holiday.

Waterhouse, 67, has had an affinity with Britain since arriving here as a budding actress and model in the 1970s. She worked predominantly in theatre, but was cast on both stage and screen.