Racing: Courage is Miss Potential's middle name

One of the great talents of a racehorse is the ability to run through the pain barrier.

If you want to run a competition, Miss Potential is so far in front she's out of sight.

The sentimental and tote favourite for today's $200,000 Mudgway Fair Tax For Racing Stakes has had so much go wrong with her during her brilliant career, a lesser horse would have given up.

Giving up is something Miss Potential has never heard of.

If she had she probably would not have lasted the 15 weeks she was strung up to the ceiling of her box after suffering a spiral fracture of her near-side cannon bone during a race at Tauranga in early 2003.

One of the great examples of the courage Miss Potential can summons is her close second to Starcraft in last year's Mudgway Stakes.

On the way to Hastings the day before the race, the stop-go sign workers on a stretch of roadworks put up the 'go' sign at both ends of a problem strip and owner Bill Borrie had to hit the anchors so hard Miss Potential ended up jammed under a metal crossbar in the horse float.

Borrie walked the mare all night and she recovered sufficiently from a hock injury and severe cuts to her back to next day test one of the best Australia could produce.

Regular rider Reese Jones describes Miss Potential as a freak and he uses the word carefully.

Like many others he is dumbfounded by the continual tendency to underrate her, despite earnings of $1,043,076.

"The other thing that always make me smile is when she is referred to as small," said Jones.

"Let me tell you, when I stand alongside her I can't see over her back.

"A lot of that comes from her low head carriage when she gallops and from her daisy-clipping galloping action.

"The other point is that she never looks to be galloping as fast as she actually is and that's the same when you're on her back.

"I have to be very careful about that in rating her in front in this class - it is so easy to leave yourself too vulnerable."

Jones says Miss Potential never fails to give her best.

"Regardless of how she is feeling when she goes into the starting gates, when she jumps from them she forgets everything and just wants to be a racehorse. She just says 'look out'. She's very friendly with humans, but she can get very grumpy with other horses. She redefines the word courage."

Miss Potential has a rolling, high cruising speed that almost always sees her land in front in her races, but Jones is not taking that as a given going into today's group one race.

"If something wants to go crazy, I'll be letting them. Since she's come back from her broken leg she's a much more relaxed horse. She'll drop the bit if you ask."

Jones and Borrie could not be happier with the mare's physical condition, despite not having raced since June, but they are always fractionally nervous about her ability to find trouble.

"Most of what's happened to her have been freakish accidents," says Jones.

"If there's something like that floating around, she seems to be able to find it."

This will be the second-last time you will see Miss Potential on a racetrack, certainly in New Zealand.

Following this race she will tackle the $150,000 Stoney Bridge Stakes in three weeks then travel to Australia to be mated.

Borrie had ruled out any chance of the mare running in the $1 million Kelt Capital Stakes.

"There is a chance she will have a race in Australia on the way to the stallion, but I'll make that decision later."

Borrie said he had a short list of four Australian-based stallions to find a mate for Miss Potential.

"I'd rather not mention them at this point because I'm negotiating at the moment and naming them might hinder that.

"I know we've got nice stallions in New Zealand, but if you're going to market the result to Australians, it makes sense to have it sired by an Australian-based stallion," said Borrie.