KEY POINTS:
It took Melbourne trainer Colin Little exactly 30 minutes to decide to set El Segundo for today's A$3 million Cox Plate.
The exact time was 5.45pm Melbourne time a year ago this afternoon.
Little had just gone through the worst experience of his life.
He'd won the Cox Plate with El Segundo, only to discover that the commentator whose words he'd believed had been wrong and El Segundo had, in fact, lost by a nose.
"I'd never previously got to first acceptance stage for a Cox Plate and I heard the commentator say: ' ... El Segundo has won it.'
"It's a funny feeling because at the end of the day it's not your worst day at the office to finish second in a three million dollar Cox Plate, but 30 minutes later we were all in a huddle and everyone agreed the only place we wanted to be was back here a year later."
And El Segundo is.
And he's one of the favoured few given a chance of toppling the actual favourite Miss Finland.
This time Little is fortunate to have a better barrier draw - last year it was No 10 of the 11 starters, this time it's a safer No 7.
And if he doesn't have a better horse, Little at least has a stronger one.
"I didn't think he'd get any stronger from his 5-year-old year, but he's definitely stronger and he's 6kg heavier. I would hesitate to say he's any better, but he's at least as good as last year."
And that might be enough to get him over the line.
El Segundo has a devastating turn of foot when asked to sprint and last year he had to let down from last in the field. "Last year my rider had no choice but to drop back from the outside draw, but this time from No 7 I can't see how he would get so far back."
Little has even had the luxury of plotting his ideal path through the lead-up races.
"Last year because of certain circumstances we had to switch away from our original plan of racing him three weeks apart and I wasn't that happy about it.
"This time we've been able to go the three weeks, three weeks and I'm sure that will benefit him."
The only negative is the mystifying unplaced effort El Segundo threw in when sixth, 5.2 lengths from the winner Devil Moon, in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington last start.
El Segundo narrowly beat one of his main rivals tomorrow, Haradasun, in the Feehan Stakes two starts back, but in the Turnbull he failed to show anything like the same dash.
The newly-laid Flemington track has come in for a lot of criticism for the unfair way it raced that day, but Little refuses to use that as an excuse.
"The inside rail was definitely 'off' that day, but he came up the centre of the track where they were winning from. We have to put that race behind us and say it didn't happen."
Little hasn't got his mind set on which of the 12 rivals is the toughest to beat.
"It's a confusing race. My horse was disappointing last time, Marasco went dreadful in the Turnbull and Haradasun went fair and then you've got horses that were impressive winning in lesser company.
"It's not an easy race to assess."
Even if he's tempted to, Little won't be giving his rider Like Nolan a long list of instructions.
"If I've got a rider that knows the horse, and in Luke I have, I pretty much leave it up to them."
Probably the only thing he might mention is to be ready for the sprint that almost always comes on from about the 700m in Cox Plates, way earlier than in any other race you can think of.
"But my horse has a great sprint on him - he'll never be left flat-footed."
Even on this afternoon's television coverage, Colin Little won't be difficult to pick out as the most excited person in the weighing area if El Segundo wins the Southern Hemisphere's weight-for-age championship.
For all the races he's won - and he has no idea how many that is - Little admits that for a Melbourne boy nothing can compare to winning the Cox Plate. "There's group ones, then there's better group ones, then there's the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup.
"It doesn't get better."
