Gai Waterhouse is watching on, her first Golden Slipper-less year in the best part of two decades. The Slipper practically is Gai, yet her closest link to this year's $3.5 million scamper is the man who stood by her side for nearly two decades forging his own name at the first available chance.

Does she congratulate him? Beg him to come back? Say anything at all? Hard feelings?

"I ran into her at the Melbourne sales and she gave me a hug and said, 'Well done [on your first Golden Slipper runner]'," Newnham said. "It's 20 years. I'm not going to be upset of something small how it ended. I'm happy what I'm doing and I hope they're happy doing what they're doing."

What "they" - Waterhouse and training partner Adrian Bott, whose elevation to racebook status was enough for Newnham to turn his back on Tulloch Lodge early last year - have been doing is good, but it's not training a Golden Slipper hope. Not this year. Which is what Sydney racing is mostly about. And that's what Newnham has done at his first chance.

Scour every Golden Slipper runner and few have a storyline as compelling as that of Newnham and his 70-1 bolter Diamond Tathagata, the slogging Skyline Stakes winner. Newnham may no longer be with Gai, but Gai is still with Newnham.

Preparing a colt days out from a big race? "I haven't changed much really from what she did with those other colts like Pierro and Vancouver." Why can you win? "I can't remember the last Slipper winner that didn't race before Christmas." Another Gai-ism. Goals as a trainer? "Definitely top 10 ... I want to be a top five trainer [in Sydney]."

It's like speaking to Gai without Gai speaking to you. Honest, refreshing, always ambitious. But it's not all about Gai in Newnham's flourishing business.

"I think everyone expected all my horses would be leading - but I've had winners from in front, midfield, last," Newnham said referencing Waterhouse's tried-and-tested on-speed patterns.

"I think a lot of the time horses are a reflection of you. It doesn't matter what sort of trainer you are, it generally reflects what sort of person you are.

"And that's where I like a stable that runs smoothly, in a relaxed fashion, I don't like anything in a hurry and I don't like people on edge ... if your people are on edge your horses are on edge.

"It doesn't matter if they're a five-furlong horse or two-mile horse, they've got to relax."

Which is why if Diamond Tathagata doesn't turn a hair under Newnham's care - he even canters the horse around Warwick Farm on said morning - neither will his trainer. Except for when trainer and bloodstock guru Patrick Lee - who Newnham knew from his days in Macau - told him a Hinchinbrook colt that fetched $100,000 at the Inglis sale last year was his first horse as a trainer.

Said Newnham: "I said to him, 'I'm not even sure I'm taking out a licence yet. I just want to have a couple of weeks off and make sure I knew what I wanted to do'."

But he knew. And so did Lee. There was no decision.

"I'll tell you the truth ... I know John Hawkes, I know Gai Waterhouse and in the future I think Mark could be the top trainer in Australia," Lee said. "He started with zero and I've been watching his stable and he looks after the horses properly. He's a clever trainer and that's why I say he'll be a top trainer in Australia."

But as always, there were struggles. In the first few months Newnham would walk through his barn with just a few horses. A near ghost town. Empty boxes don't pay bills. He'd gone from having a family with two healthy incomes to providing basically nothing. Which are what dreams cost. And what he was thinking when he first fell in love with Sydney's race in 1981.

"I used to go to the races every Saturday with my Dad," Newnham said. "[But] I fell off the school bus [the day before the Golden Slipper in 1981].

"You know how they used to cram 400 kids on the bus? The doors opened and I fell off and straight into the gutter. I hobbled home and mum took me up to hospital and I was on crutches.

"Dad wouldn't take me [the next day] as I was on crutches. I was absolutely filthy."

Those close to him say it might have been the same emotion when Waterhouse told him he wasn't Tulloch Lodge's heir apparent. But think he'll care if he wins the world's richest race for two-year-olds?

"It would be life-changing," Newnham said. "It won't be career-changing, it would be life-changing. For a colt it's a $25 million race. For me that's life-changing."

And so was a harsh truth from Australia's leading lady. Now, where will those congratulations come from?