In the space of one short race, just a tick over a minute, it was time for Nicole Richie to stand aside for the woman who really owns the track.

As the daughter of singer Lionel Richie was ushered away, Gai Waterhouse took centre stage. Waterhouse isn't famous for being famous. She's famous for training two-year-olds.

On Saturday, she won her sixth Golden Slipper with $2.80 favourite Vancouver. Her filly, English ($12), had eyeballed the colt in the straight, couldn't quite get there, and held on for second.

The result means the 60-year-old trainer equals the record of her late and legendary father, Tommy Smith, who passed away in 1998 but still felt present in the mosh pit of the mounting yard after the $3.5 million race.

When the throng had calmed and the photos had been taken, Waterhouse came down the steps at the back of the stage, presenting a rare chance to speak to the most wanted person at Rosehill on Saturday afternoon.

Where does this one rank, above everything you've done, Gai?

"It's the most emotional, very much so," Waterhouse said softly. "I always had confidence in the colt. And I knew that we had the fillies that were very, very good. Dad would've been so proud of him, because he is exactly what he looks for in a horse. He just ticked every box, all the way along. Every time they said he couldn't, he did."

Why the most emotional?

"Because of Dad."

Waterhouse tells you this with dry, sparkly eyes. She says she rarely cries on the course after a headline victory any longer. It never used to be this way. "You become more seasoned," she says, clutching at your arm like an aunty. "The last time would've been with Ha Ha."

That was 2001, when she claimed the trifecta in the Golden Slipper and it started a landslide of wins that now rivals her father. She's prepared Dance Hero (2004), Sebring (2008), Pierro (2012) and Overreach (2013) ... "But this is different," she said. "It was important for this colt to carry the chalice."

At the start of the day, in between the first and second races, Richie arrived in a helicopter in the middle of the course. Who knows what she received in appearance fees from the Australian Turf Club, but whether the club won its money back in extra publicity is difficult to gauge.

As she was introduced to the Rosehill crowd, barely a soul on the steps in the general admission seemed to notice, save for three teenage girls trying to get her attention. It might not return immediate dividends, but that's OK. The ATC consider it an investment as it tries to entice the younger brigade to the track. The average age of its members is 52. A whole generation of racegoers has been lost.

Grey skies and drizzling rain on Saturday morning didn't dissuade the masses. A figure of 19,504 was posted. It was a solid result, but officials would be hoping for more. Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

While international starlets help stir interest, there is no place for spin in the mounting yard on a big race day – not when there are five group1s in a row to be won and lost.

The first of the day, the Ranvet Stakes (2000m), provided the first look of one of the four Japanese horses that have been enticed to Sydney for the autumn.

Tosen Stardom was denied victory by Contributer, which is probably the best horse in the country right now. It provided John O'Shea with his second group1 win since taking over Godolphin's Australian operation.

O'Shea has one owner: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who was probably watching on a television at home in Dubai as he had his breakfast. A former Waterhouse foreman, O'Shea now has 400 horses and 200 staff under his watch.

Waterhouse flittered between three jockeys in the minutes before the Golden Slipper, talking to a clutch of different owners each time.

She has many masters to serve, but on this Slipper Day she equalled one of them.

"The last words Dad said to me were, 'You make a man sick. You can't train two-year-olds', then he passed away two days later.

"After I thought I'm never going to let that be my thing.

"That was a driving force for me."