Kerry Parker has said the exact same words before.
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A couple of years ago, the question was posed about just how good Think It Over was, before running third in the $1 million The Gong.
Was the trip too short? Would the horse be up to it?
The great Kembla Grange hope, on his own track, in the Illawarra's richest race showed all his promise chasing some quality-type opposition to place behind Archedemus and Dawn Passage.
But it was only the beginning.
From there, Parker would go on to prove Think It Over is an elite gelding.
Next preparation, he took out the Group 1 George Main Stakes over 1500 metres at Rosehill and later the Chelmsford, Hill Stakes, Craven Plate and Rosehill Cup to earn a handsome $1 million.
Parker knew he would only improve over further ground so his fateful words were again proven when Nash Rawiller stunned everyone at Royal Randwick by peeling to the outside fence to win the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Now Parker is chasing even bigger prize money with Hope In Your Heart in the $10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill on Saturday.
"She's a 2000m horse, I'm just keeping her as fresh as I can," Parker said, echoing the words about Think It Over in 2020.
So, as with Think It Over before The Gong (1600m) at the time, how good is Hope In Your Heart?
With 10 times the prize money on offer on Saturday, Parker is about to find out. Of course, Think It Over's extraordinary career has been halted by a tendon injury which ruled him out of last week's Cox Plate.
Zaaki, who was beaten by Parker's star on the line in the Queen Elizabeth, ran a game fourth behind Anamoe in the Moonee Valley weight-for-age championship, leaving the lingering question of just how close Think It Over would have gone to winning.
But with the disappointment of nursing Think It Over back to full fitness and missing the spring comes the excitement of Hope In Your Heart's Golden Eagle chance, after making the field with saddle cloth No. 20.
"She's been great for the stable," Parker said.
"It's hard enough having a horse competing in the carnival races, let alone getting one into a race worth $10 million. We've been really lucky with Think It Over and now her in the past couple of years."
Running fourth on Saturday nets half-a-million dollars in prize money, fifth $250,000. Having won three on the trot, including back-to-back Group 3 successes against her own sex, the challenge comes against import and favourite Light Infantry, who trainer Ciaron Maher reckons could be the best horse he's ever trained.
Peter Moody brings the impressive Chain Of Lightning and I Wish I Win to Sydney. Parker hopes she will follow a similar run to the Angst Stakes win, where sat behind the field and built the revs to defy the well-fancied Honeycreeper on the line.
Whatever Hope In Your Heart does in the four-year-old feature, you suspect the best is yet to come ... if Think It Over is any indication.
Illawarra Sports Awards
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