Savvy Coup (Image: Trish Dunell)
In past years, media crews would have hardly given Diane Pitman a moment's rest but, such is the changing face of the Cox Plate, the visiting Kiwi spent most of her time at The Valley's Breakfast With The Best on Tuesday morning contently with just her horse Savvy Coup and her track rider Brittany Moore for company.
Savvy Coup is the Kiwi raider that the Cox Plate yearned for in past decades. The 1986 Bonecrusher-Our Waverley Star stoush was the peak of a New Zealand tradition where connections would consistently send their best horses across each October to take on the Aussies in the race that was then billed as the Australasian championship.
Even as recently as 2012, when Ocean Park took the Cox Plate, it was the Kiwis that mostly threatened the locals following a string of international flops in the race.
But those days are gone as New Zealand's most accomplished weight-for-age horse, Savvy Coup, slipped ever so quietly into Melbourne and then to the Cranbourne stables of Mick Kent to be prepared for the race of her life.
The Cox Plate is a race now recognised as one of the best in the world but that doesn't worry Pitman, the wife of co-trainer Michael. They are a veteran racing team of more than 35 years and from all that experience, they know never to die wondering.
Their mood post-race on Saturday will not be dictated to by where Savvy Coup finishes. They are happy just to see her have her chance in a race that will be viewed throughout the world.
"When she won the (Group 1) Livamol (Stakes), we'd made the statement that we'd come for the Cox Plate if she won and we Kiwis don't mind having a go," Pitman said.
As for her chances?
"We don't know. It's a smart field that's for sure. We won't know until we try but she gives it her all and she is very well," Pitman added.
"When it's all said and done, we wouldn't mind finishing second or third to Winx. We'd take that."
Pitman said the mare's jockey Chris Johnson has the task this week of researching the replays of as many past Cox Plates as he can as well as studying the 28-consecutive wins of Winx.
But Pitman admits he could be wasting his time.
"Our best chance might be if he throws out a toe-rope when Winx goes by," she conceded.
Pitman and her husband have been training since the early 1980s, with son Matthew making it a training partnership with his father Michael about five years ago. They have sent plenty of horses across the Tasman but not quite like one of this class.
"She's up a level from what we've bought over before," Pitman said. "She used to be a bit fierce in her racing but once she got over some ground, she's been a little revelation really.
"It's very exciting for us all to think that we are competing with Winx.
"She's an amazing horse and Chris (Waller) is amazing how he handles it all. She just does things that others can't do and we about to find that out first-hand on Saturday I expect."