Her trainer might have feared the worst before and during the race but untapped mare It's Me kept an unblemished record in winning the Kosciuszko at Randwick.
A race exclusively for horses domiciled in regional NSW and the ACT and run as a support event for the $15 million Everest, the Scone-trained It's Me came from an impossible position to snatch a major share of the $1.3 million purse.
It's Me's chances appeared so forlorn under jockey Jason Collett that former shearer-turned trainer Brett Cavanough was resigned to defeat.
"Jason Collett, I thought he tried to get her beat. It was ugly but it worked," Cavanough said of the daring ride.
"I saw him go into traffic, in a black hole. I thought 'we are in some trouble here'.
"Gee whiz, she got out and got the job done. So what more can you say."
Cavanough trained at Albury before moving to Scone, a town in the NSW Hunter Valley dubbed the horse capital of Australia.
If Cavanough had doubts while watching Collett try to find clear air to launch It's Me's bid, they were nothing compared to his anxieties in the countdown to the race.
It's Me developed a cold during the week and Cavanough's first thoughts were to save her for another day.
"I would have scratched her but the vets said run her," he said.
Taking her record to four wins from as many starts, It's Me, the $2 favourite, flew late to beat the Albury-trained Redouble ($14) with Man Of Peace ($19) from Canberra filling the minor placing.
