Call it a belated farewell for a country champion with an easygoing demeanor, but who fired up on the track to facilitate a dream autumn day at Randwick for a country trainer and a bush syndicate.
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Seven months after Suncraze flopped in The Kosciuszko, the Leader can reveal that he has been retired.
The six-year-old gelding's below-par performance in that race convinced his Tamworth trainer Melanie O'Gorman that his time was up.
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At the inaugural edition of the $1.3 million Royal Randwick race the previous year, he finished a game second.
"I just made the decision there and then," O'Gorman said of the horse's retirement straight after the 2019 Kosciuszko. "He just didn't perform as well as we know the horse can."
Three Sydney wins (two Highway Handicaps and a benchmark 85 at Randwick), the win in the 2018 Country Championships qualifier at Scone and the second in The Kosciuszko were the performances O'Gorman will remember most.
"He was a great horse," she said. "And he won an enormous amount of money for a country-trained horse."
In short, Suncraze is the best horse O'Gorman has been associated with. She received him when he was a yearling - sent to her by the gelding's Sydney owner, Anthony Gow-Gates, her longstanding friend.
"He was a lovely horse to train, and we had a lot of fun with him," she said.
She continued: "We were so close [in the 2018 Kosciuszko]. And I felt like we gave it our best shot.
"It was a lovely day. It was a great day to be part of the whole Everest day. And it was a big thrill for the slot holders from Dorrigo. They took home about $115,000 in prize money for running second."
Understandably, O'Gorman is a big fan of the Highway Handicap and Kosciuszko concepts, for the exposure they give regional racing.
She is eyeing another tilt at Highway riches, after her five-year-old gelding, Akecheta, was impressive in winning at Armidale on Tuesday. The horse is owned by Gow-Gates.
Will lightning strike twice?
