It was the last supper that decided Single Gaze's Canberra fate after no one wanted the little filly at the Magic Millions sales.
Initially passed in at the iconic Gold Coast sales, it wasn't until dinner that night that Canberra trainer Nick Olive finally convinced the breeders to let him buy the now gutsy five-year-old mare for $70,000.
Wayne Oxford, one of those breeders, had originally told Olive to "go to hell", but after a few more drinks at dinner - where the two parties were sitting on adjacent tables - that initial stance eased and the rest is a second at the $3 million Caulfield Cup.
Bred through the Redbank North stud at Harden, Oxford and the Middleton family run stud kept a stake in Single Gaze and by the tears of joy being shed on the finishing post they're thankful they did.
It's taken them on a ride along the full spectrum of emotions.
From the lows of a horrific fall 18 months ago that could've not only killed Single Gaze but jockey Kathy O'Hara as well, to the highs of winning a group 1 race just a week before the fall and now a second in the Caulfield Cup.
It might only be two weeks before those tears of joy are falling again, with Olive set to take both jockey and horse to the race that stops a nation - the $6 million Melbourne Cup.
But it was a rollercoaster that almost never happened.
The diminutive mare almost didn't make her way to Olive's Canberra stables and the journey almost never begun.
"It was knocked back for $75,000 and then Nick came up with an offer of $70,000 and ... I did say 'Tell them to go to hell'," Oxford said.
"And after a few drinks I said, 'Tell them they can have her provided we can have shares in her'."
Canberra restaurant-owner Manny Notaras also came on board as part of a Canberra and Gundagai contingent that have been on the rollercoaster ride.
He predicted if Single Gaze salutes on that first Tuesday in November then they'll make a movie out of it.
"Everybody knows the history of the horse, to come back from the fall and to do what she did today it's just unbelievable," Notaras said.
"It's like a win and she's not the biggest horse. For her to have recovered and to have the same jockey on that had the fall, if we win the Melbourne Cup they probably make a movie out of it."
