A jubilant Nick Hall shows his delight at winning the Caulfield Cup aboard Fawkner. Photo / Getty Images
It has to be gut-wrenching. You put six months of faultless work into preparing a horse for A$2.5 million.
You do it all perfectly with every single thing you can control and are then beaten in the final 40 seconds by something you can't control.
Silent Achiever's beaten performance in Saturday's Caulfield Cup came down to the hard track.
Plain and simple.
If you don't believe this column, ask trainer Roger James, Silent Achiever's rider Glen Boss and Rosehill horseman Chris Waller.
"The track was too hard," Jim Cassidy said to Waller after finishing mid-field on the favourite Hawkspur. Waller got the same report on fifth-placed Royal Descent.
The heavily backed Hawkspur copped a serious battering early, pushing him even further back than Waller instructed Cassidy to be, but Cassidy said the horse could not strike out properly late in the race on the hard Caulfield track.
Glen Boss told Roger James that Silent Achiever had "surged on to the bit underneath him" when he released the tension on the reins at the 600m.
And that's the way it looked - Silent Achiever left eventual winner Fawkner behind approaching the home, sprinting so fast she all but got level with the leaders, despite being the widest runner around the bend.
Within seconds that sprint dissipated under jarred legs and she battled bravely into a handy eighth.
The club's policy of starting the race day with a track rating dead 4 and allowing pre-existing weather patterns to dictate track conditions late in the day sounds fine, but in extremely hot weather - and Melbourne can get plenty of that - is plainly dangerous when running multi-million dollar races.
Roger James and Chris Waller are not trainers who delve straight into the excuse book when beaten.
They wouldn't have one.
The Melbourne Racing Club now has big questions to ask and answer about the wisdom of running its major races as the last race.
Saturday's Cup was run at 5.45pm local time on a day that saw 28 degrees and a strong, warm, drying wind.
The club copped criticism the previous Saturday for running the group one Caulfield Stakes as the last race on the programme, one of those being Glen Boss.
The footing come the final race, said Boss, was unacceptably hard and he wasn't a lone voice.
Two-thirds of the way through Saturday's programme Boss was interviewed on television and said he felt the footing was more favourable this time, but he admitted later warmer weather dried the track more quickly just before the Cup than anyone anticipated.
The last race scenario is meant to keep the large crowd on course for betting and drinking. Revenue.
You will almost never hear Roger James blame anyone, but he let some of his feelings out yesterday morning.
"Everything is done for betting and for the public, these days - it's rarely about the horse.
"I told everyone the mare had gone through a faultless preparation and I told a few that the only other thing I could have wished for was a shower of rain.
"In England, even including Royal Ascot, they often run their main race as the first race to give the top horses the best footing."
Revenue is vitally important in horse racing, but so are horses' legs.
On two counts Silent Achiever has a cloud over her Melbourne Cup campaign.
"She has stitches in two legs," says James and one of the cuts is quite nasty.
"I don't know where it happened."
Glen Boss has been suspended until October 30 for causing interference on Silent Achiever and unless he successfully appeals will miss the Cox Plate ride on well-fancied Puissance De Lune.
Winning rider Nick Hall is suspended until October 29 and will also miss Cox Plate Day.
"Oh well," said James, looking for a positive, "she's finished only 2.45 lengths from the winner and picked up A$75,000."
It should have been one hell of a lot better.
What about the Melbourne Cup trial of English stayer Dandino.
His storming second from virtually nowhere on the home turn had Melbourne Cup written all over it.
Craig Williams lamented the wide barrier draw, which he is adamant cost him his third consecutive Caulfield Cup.
"It was the difference between the winner [Fawkner] coming out of gate No 10 and us having to come out of No 16," said Williams.
"I was looking for the spot Nick Hall found with the winner. Once he got there and we couldn't I had no options but to go back."
Weight is all important in Melbourne Cups and Dandino drops from his 56.5kg on Saturday to a luxurious 54kg.
Williams will not be on him though - he is already committed to another European rider Mount Athos, who, along with the last 11 Melbourne Cup hopefuls, flew into Melbourne on Saturday.
Lucie Botti was substituting for her husband Marco Botti, Dandino's trainer, and flew to England on Saturday without being able to stop smiling.
"He went terrific and Craig was thrilled.
"I'm flying out with a very good report to give my husband."
The Botti camp is waiting for confirmation English jockey Ryan Moore will handle Dandino at Flemington.
Bookmakers immediately promoted Dandino to $6 Melbourne Cup favouritism.
Dandino trumped all others in terms of looking forward to the Melbourne Cup, with the dangers likely to be among the other Europeans.
James McDonald put his name forward for one of the best rides in the race. He went straight over to the inside rail from the extreme outside barrier with Dear Demi and picked a path through the field to be right behind the leaders on the home bend.
"I thought we were going to win halfway down the straight, but the horses out wide had the momentum."
McDonald now switches to trying to win Saturday's Cox Plate on It's A Dundeel, who he will ride at Breakfast With The Stars at Moonee Valley tomorrow morning.
Co-trainer Murray Baker will work It's A Dundeel with company, which switches the star on to his work compared with when he works solo.
Melbourne Cups are rarely superseded, but the It's A Dundeel-Atlantic Jewel rematch has all the elements of a don't-miss event.
Pukekohe racing heats up as elite fields challenge trainers at Counties Cup meeting.