KEY POINTS:
At 45 Greg Childs is at an age where jockeys still lucky enough to be riding start to wonder about retirement.
As the Melbourne-based former New Zealander left the Eagle Farm birdcage on Eskimo Queen for the A$400,000 ($448,000) Queensland Oaks on Saturday he thought he had at least two more years left in him at the elite level.
At the 600m he knew it for certain.
Not much more than half a minute later Childs had ridden his 70th group one winner and few of those would have been better rides.
Childs turned in a superb performance on the New Zealand filly and if Eskimo Queen takes out the Queensland Derby this weekend, part of that notable success will be due to her rider's performance in the Oaks.
The jockey used only a minimum of energy from Eskimo Queen and as a result Mike Moroney now has an awful lot more filly to work with as he prepares for an even tougher effort against the colts and geldings.
Had Childs ridden an ordinary race and bottomed Eskimo Queen out, the Derby chances would be that much smaller.
It was the first time Childs had been on the filly's back.
After a late flash into the minor money in the Doomben Roses, Eskimo Queen looked the Oaks' favourite, but Childs said he deliberately took little notice of that.
"Sometimes those lead-up runs can be too obvious and that's what can make you nervous.
"It still has to happen, especially in a big field like we had in the Oaks."
Mike Moroney had a slight question mark on whether Eskimo Queen could see out the 2400m and asked Childs to ride her conservatively. The filly was two places back and one off the inside, and looked the winner 700m from the finish.
"At the 800m I thought 'I've done my bit, I hope Mike's done his'."
As a result of that win Eskimo Queen is now second favourite for the Derby. Analie (1973), Bravery (1988) and Royal Magic (1992) are previous fillies to have won the Oaks-Derby double.
Childs rates the male 3-year-olds as a "mixed bag".
The favourite is the Bart Cummings' trained Empires Choice, a grandson of 1988 Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose and last-start winner of the A$125,000 Rough Habit Plate last Saturday week.
"He's probably the one to beat, but Gai Waterhouse's 3-year-old Theseo beat the older horses in the Premier's Cup, so he'll be right in it too."
Childs says he is as keen and competitive as he ever was.
"I love riding, in fact I'm going down to ride at Mornington this afternoon.
"I'm 7th or 8th on the jockeys' ladder and that's without having been on a topliner this year.
"I've always believed that you should do what you do well and do it for as long as you can.
"I've been consistently riding winners and I want to keep doing it."
He has been kept busy designing and marketing what is known as a Vipa body protector for horse riders.
"It's a little heavy for jockeys to use, it's more for equestrian riders."
When Childs finally does pack his saddles away for the last time he'll have all those magnificent Sunline memories to fall back on.
The best of them?
"Two. When she won her second Cox Plate by 7 1/2 lengths and the other riders all said they were going to break her back by taking her on a long way out - she just buried them.
"And the day she won the Doncaster at Randwick. It was a handicap and I had to ride her conservatively because she had 58kg in a handicap.
"She won by a nose and Glen Boss thought he'd grabbed her on Shogun Lodge.
"I was proud of that ride."
And the Oaks ride on Saturday is right there to match it.
