But for last year's meeting being washed out, Point Counterpoint might have been a Moree Cup winner before Sunday.
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The Stirling Osland-trained and Brooke Stower-ridden gelding stormed home from midfield on the turn to snatch the $55,000 feature in the last couple of strides.
In what was a thrilling finish there was less than a neck between the first three, Point Counterpoint just sneaking home on the outside from Gunnedah Cup winner Annie's Street (Gavin Groth) and Moetta (Brett Robb).
Post-race Osland said he actually had the then-four-year-old "ready to run in this race first-up 12 months ago" but the meeting was called off.
It looked like history might be going to repeat when 44mls fell overnight on Friday and early Saturday leaving the Moree track waterlogged. But the Showcase meeting was able to be transferred to Tamworth.
The win made it two in six days for the Armidale trainer at Tamworth after Golden Point resumed from a 27-week spell to win the Tamworth Rush on Monday.
Point Counterpoint similarly hadn't raced for 38 weeks after having surgery in February to remove a couple of bone chips in his fetlock.
Coincidentally, the same surgery was the reason for Golden Point's lengthy time off the track.
"(They were) Two weeks apart, the boys," Osland quipped.
"They're obviously both nice horses, both highway winners and look like they've got plenty of ability so worth doing."
"For them to come back and both knock it off first start, no trial, looks like we did the right thing."
Mid-field in the betting, despite the lack of a trial, he was "pretty confident" about Point Counterpoint's chances on Sunday.
"He'd been doing everything right at home and it wasn't the fact that we didn't want to trial him it just didn't work out," he said.
"We came here (Tamworth) three-and-a-half weeks ago to trial him and the meeting was called off that day. And then took him to Scone to trial him and the trials got called off that day."
"We just sort of banked on what we'd done at home and let him run through."
On his form too - he is a Highway and provincial winner - he felt the Bull Point gelding was the "class horse" in the race.
As far as what is next, Osland doesn't have any firm plans.
"We were looking for a couple of Wednesday meetings. But, I think benchmarks, we'll have to wait and see where we sit there before we make a plan," he said.
He did though confirm, the Kosciuszko is on the radar for Golden Point.
"He was a nice win first-up over the 1200 here at Tamworth and put a gap on his rivals and I think some of those guys might like to think they are heading to a Kozi," he said.
"We'll be looking to Wednesday in town in a couple of weeks time and see where we go from there."
"[But] If we get a slot he'll definitely give his best. He's a horse that doesn't run bad and always puts his best foot forward."
"If you look through his form, there's plenty of winners that have come out of his races and he's beaten plenty of good horses."
The five-year-old gelding is currently $34 in the pre-noms betting.
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