Michael Evans finds love in the air while tent-hopping at Flemington.
It's pleasing to see fresh signs of openness at Macquarie Group. And we're not just talking about publishing advisory contracts of satellite funds.
As your diarist wandered the corporate area at Derby Day, glasnost was in the air at the Macquarie marquee. Gone were the walls and pot plants of past years to stop prying eyes; instead there was a clear view inside.
And who should be sitting at the window but a relaxed-looking Nicholas Moore.
Crisis? What crisis?
Moore spent the day playing host without an apparent care in the world. Studying the form guide, sipping a beer.
He leaned out the window to greet James Packer's former flatmate Matthew Csidei for a few words before Csidei headed into a neighbouring tent.
Perhaps Csidei was looking for Packer's Ellerston tent, which was just metres away last year. Rather prophetically, with Packer's Ellerston GEMS having disappeared from the market, so too had the tent vamoosed, with the plot not rented out this year.
But back to Moore, who chatted with a host of guests, among them the former Allco banana Peter Yates, who strapped on a chaff bag for a long stint in the tent.
While we did not spot Moore celebrating any successful, er, capital raisings, we see him take what appeared to be a tenner from his wallet before the last and head to the in-tent TAB to place a bet. Rather prophetically, it seems the capital injection came a bit late. The gates opened and Moore was left holding the tenner. Still, it's good to hold cash right now.
But we can only wonder about Moore's hunch bets for the day.
Perhaps, with an eye to the Macquarie share price, he had
No. 17 in the last, Count To Zero. Or No. 5, Tears I Cry. Maybe he had an eye on Fighting Fund or Keen Commander in the ninth. Or Captain Fantastic in the fifth. Our tip was in the fourth - Think Money.
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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