Melbourne's spring features beckon but for now Kerry Parker is celebrating Think It Over's stunning victory in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday.
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The Kembla-trained horse upset his more fancied rivals after an audacious ride from Nash Rawiller, the jockey heading for the outside rail in boggy conditions.
The move worked a treat, Think It Over storming over the top of Zaaki, with Mount Popa a distant third.
Champion mare Verry Elleegant was never in the race and finished fifth, while Duais was seventh and Anamoe ninth.
The victory takes Think It Over's career earnings beyond $6 million, the six-year-old having won two Group 1 and multiple black-type races.
Having claimed Sydney's biggest weight-for-age contest, the gelding has rocketed into $11 in the TAB's Cox Plate futures market.
The Melbourne Cup also looms as a potential target, owner Richard Johnston long chasing a start in the two-mile staying test.
Parker, however, is determined to savour the biggest win of his 30-year training career before he maps out a plan for the spring.
"It's the biggest race there is," Parker told the Mercury. "It's sensational.
"I don't think it matters who you are, it feels sensational to win a race like this. The lead up, with all the rain, the never give up attitude that the horse's got, that we've got, and we come out on top.
"We'll work out the spring later. He's got to get around the Melbourne way. He got around it alright (in the Australian Cup), he floated a bit, but he got around here (Randwick) fine, that's all that counted."
Parker was quick to praise Rawiller for the ride, the jockey coming up with the plan to hug the outside rail down the straight.
Talking to the Mercury earlier in the week, Rawiller was confident his horse could match the likes of Verry Elleegant and Anamoe, but feared the wet track would be his undoing.
Having taken the inside line earlier in the day with Parker's Hope In Your Heart in the Oaks and finished 10th, the jockey knew that was not the place to be.
So Rawiller sat Think It Over outside leader Zaaki throughout the journey before darting for the outside fence at the 400m.
It was a move that proved a stroke of genius, the jockey celebrating a famous victory.
"What a horse," Rawiller said. "So disappointing just with the autumn the way it's panned out with all the wet tracks. You know those good ones can find a way to win can't they?
"I trotted down the outside fence going to the barriers on one of them earlier in the day and thought 'I'll keep this up my sleeve for later'."
The win helped Rawiller secure the Nathan Berry Medal for best jockey throughout The Championships.
It wasn't all smiles however, Rawiller slapped with a $40,000 fine and suspended for two weeks for using the whip on Think It Over eight times prior to the 100m and 20 times in total.
Jockeys are permitted to use the whip a maximum of five times prior to the 100m.
Despite the a suspension and fine, stewards decided not to take the victory off the jockey.
Instead, he was left to celebrate a famous win on board a $41 chance.
"The reason why he was odds like that is the conditions and it's just a funny thing how it worked. When I straightened I thought 'it's worth a go' to get to the outside.
"I just felt it's where the ambulances drive and all the tractors run up the outside fence. For my bloke it was like going from a heavy 9 to slow 6 which he can handle. When he can handle the track he does that, he's a very good horse."
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