KEY POINTS:
Gerald Shand took a deep breath and said: "Just as well I've been in this game a long time."
Watching a horse you own - potentially the best in New Zealand - with blood streaming from both nostrils is not the easiest of scenarios.
But Gerald Shand long
ago completed his apprenticeship in an industry that can take you from the bottom of the heap to glittering heights with breathtaking speed and just as quickly be devastatingly cruel.
Crossyourheart was a live chance to become New Zealand's first winner of the Golden Slipper Stakes in Sydney and she is now languishing in her Pukekohe paddock recovering from a lung bleed at Matamata on Saturday.
Veterinary science is still learning about horses bleeding from the lungs.
One theory is that every horse bleeds when it races, but most only to a minute degree that is almost undetectable.
Pressure on blood vessels during a race is extreme and infection can worsen the risk of a bleed.
Interestingly, Crossyourheart was not herself before Saturday's $120,000 Robin, Duke Of Bedford Matamata Breeders Stakes.
Apart from her explosive speed, Crossyourheart's next best asset is a bomb-proof temperament.
It was missing on Saturday.
Something was agitating her.
The normally placid and pliable filly was up on her toes and gave co-trainer Shane Hapeta a torrid time trying to control her in the birdcage before Leith Innes mounted.
"She's never been like that," said Hapeta.
Judy Collett, wife of co-trainer Richard Collett, led Crossyourheart in before her winning run in the $500,000 NZ Bloodstock Classique at Te Rapa and she behaved perfectly.
"She's normally a dream to lead," she said.
At the start the previously unbeaten filly remained unsettled for Leith Innes.
"She wouldn't go into her gate and when she did she charged forward and smacked her head on the front of the gate."
The rest is history how Crossyourheart jumped awkwardly from the starting stalls, raced without her usual brilliance and battled gamely into fourth, clearly lengths off her previous form.
Crossyourheart was scoped immediately after the race, confirming that the bleed had been from the lungs.
A swab could be taken which might reveal whether an infection had contributed to the potential to bleed, but Richard Collett said they would probably not bother.
Crossyourheart will have the mandatory stand-down period of three months and indications were the connections will be in no hurry with her.
In everything bad there is at least a little bit of good and Gerald Shand found it on Saturday.
"That cheque from her last start [the Classique, $263,750] is suddenly starting to look even better on the bank statement."
The camp might have had devastating bad luck, but they had already experienced their good fortune.
Some aren't so lucky.