She carried the field to the line in the Caulfield Cup, now Single Gaze will carry Canberra's hopes in the Melbourne Cup.
The gutsy mare will cap her return from a horrific fall that almost ended her career and seriously injured jockey Kathy O'Hara just 18 months ago with a trip to Flemington for the race that stops a nation in two weeks' time.
The little Nick Olive-trained mare finished second to Boom Time in the $3 million Caulfield Cup on Saturday and the $425,000 she won takes her career winnings past $2 million and the first Canberra horse to do so.
Now she'll swap Caulfield's crowd of 30,000 for the 100,000 of Flemington for the $6 million Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday of November.
Olive was thrilled with O'Hara's ride labelling it a "10 out of 10", but it drew the ire of the stewards and she was suspended for 10 meetings for careless riding after she shifted in on a tiring Sir Isaac Newton with 400 metres to go.
While it rules the Sydney hoop out for nine days, it won't stop her from riding in the Melbourne Cup where Single Gaze has come in to a $26 hope.
Early signs were good for Olive's hardy mare following the race and if she pulls up well in the coming days then she's bound for Australia's most famous race.
It's a path Olive has trodden before when he was foreman for Barbara Joseph - taking on the Caulfied-Melbourne cups double with Ain't Seen Nothin' in 2003.
Now it's his time to shine with the Canberra trainer over the moon with how his five-year-old mare ran in one of the nation's biggest races.
He had no concerns his daughter of Not A Single Doubt would be able to handle the step up in distance of 800m from Caulfield's 2400m.
"As long as she pulls up alright as she goes forward, she'll be running in the Cup," Olive told Fairfax Media.
"I think she'll love it [the 3200m]. She won't have to do as much work as she did here, she'll be ridden a little bit quieter, but she'll love it. I think she's a genuine chance in the Melbourne Cup, I really do.
"I'm sure Canberra's as proud of her as we are and I hope in the next couple of weeks they get behind her and really show their support for her because she's doing us all proud, that's for sure. We've got owners over there crying.
"We knew she'd go well, but geez, there's some of the best horses in the world here."
Canberra Times sports David Polkinghorne is joined by Single Gaze trainer Nick Olive ahead of the pair taking on the AAMI Caulfield Cup Day!Posted by The Canberra Times on Friday, October 20, 2017
O'Hara took Single Gaze forward from barrier 12 and she went to an early lead before Sir Isaac Newton bolted clear of the field by 10 lengths down the back straight.
But by the time they came into the home straight, Single Gaze was breathing down his neck and she led the field for home.
That's where Single Gaze stayed until the final 100m when Boom Time snuck past on the post to win by 1?? lengths, with $5-favourite Johannes Vermeer third.
Olive praised the way Single Gaze did the hard work in bridging the gap to the runaway leader, belying her size compared the much more fancied horses around the $31 long shot.
"Unreal. I'm just so proud of her. Just speechless really. At the 200m I thought she was going to win," he said.
"She did all the work, she had to take the field up to the tear-away leader. She had to guts everything out there today and she stuck on hard. What a thrill - second in the Caulfield Cup.
"You saw her parade here, how small she was compared with the rest of them. She's a midget compared to the rest of them, she's just all guts and obviously ability. She's amazing."
