Arguably Grand Armee is trainer Gai Waterhouse’s best charge to date. He was widely recognised as being Sydney’s premier WFA horse during the 2004/5 period. Grand Armee was a fabulously WFA proposition over distance range of 1200m up to 2000m. In the 2005 Season Grand Arme was virtually unbeatable, and that campaign was beautifully capped off with a devastating 6 lengths winning display at Randwick in the Queen Elizabeth Stks. Beating another star of the turf of that time Lonhro in his swansong. Grand Armee was known for his feats at the headquarters of Sydney Racing, in particularly the Randwick mile. A Doncaster and Epsom Handicap winner. It took a very good horse to beat him. And it seemed the older he got the better and more resolute he became.

The only question mark that critics like to place on Grand Armee was an inability to perform the Melbourne way of going. Keen to set the record straight Gai Waterhouse set her charge on a Melbourne mission in 2005 to dispel such a myth. Her faith was rewarded as Grand Armee sailed away from the best 2000m horses in the land as a commanding winner of the Mackinnon Stakes.