KEY POINTS:
It wasn't until Todd Mitchell started driving other great horses he realised what a champion Just An Excuse was.
The dual New Zealand Cup winning pacer was tragically destroyed this week after being found with a broken leg in his Raglan retirement paddock.
It was an unfitting end to a remarkable story of a club-footed horse that gave one of harness racing's most popular trainers a fairytale final chapter in his career.
Just An Excuse was trained by Mitchell's father Robert, who moved to Raglan to retire six years ago.
Soon after an ungainly young pacer named Just An Excuse arrived, his club foot meaning he needed the beach training and patience only a man like Mitchell could provide.
What happened next was the most improbable racing story of the last decade.
Just An Excuse started his career with a massive win on a wet night at Cambridge and finished it a millionaire winner of two New Zealand Cups.
In between he won the NZ Free-For-All, Messenger, Taylor Mile, Ballarat Cup, Superstars Championship and countless hearts.
One of those hearts belonged to Todd Mitchell, who drove Just An Excuse throughout his career. "I will never drive another horse as tough as him," said the pragmatic Mitchell this week.
"I know I might have driven some faster, or at least as fast, but he was a horse in a lifetime."
The difference between great horses and champions is the line between winning and losing.
A great horse - like Monkey King or Baileys Dream, both of whom Mitchell used to drive - will win plenty of races but usually get beaten when circumstances conspire against them.
A champion, like Just An Excuse was when he could enjoy the vast surrounds of Addington, will find ways of winning races he shouldn't.
The best example is the 2004 New Zealand Cup.
Starting alongside arch-rival Elsu off a 10m handicap, Just An Excuses found himself 12 lengths behind that "freak" with 2400m to run. Effectively the Cup should have been over.
Yet Just An Excuse worked three wide to the death seat then the one-one as Elsu freewheeled in front, the leader cruising his last 1600m in a heart-breaking 1:54.
Somehow, in the last 100m, Just An Excuse clawed his way past Elsu to victory.
Considering that in the remainder of that season Elsu went on to win the Auckland and Hunter Cups and then clean swept the Interdominions, what Just An Excuse did that hot Addington afternoon was almost impossible. Almost.
"That was something special and showed what a great horse he was," remembers Mitchell .
Remarkably, it wasn't the best Just An Excuse ever felt to the experienced horseman.
"He actually felt better the night he beat Sokyola in the Ballarat Cup. He was a machine that night."
But the club foot which dogged his career meant Just An Excuse was never quite as potent at Alexandra Park or in Australia, where the tighter corners placed greater demands on his unsymmetrical body.
But at Addington he was unbelievable. He won the Centenary Cup in 2003, beating Elsu, and sat parked outside Hunter Cup winner Mister D G to win the NZ Free-For-All.
Even in his last season, with the battle against soreness all but lost, he came off a 15m handicap for third in Mainland Banner's New Zealand Cup.
With a better body and no Elsu to chase, Just An Excuse would have won far more than 17 races.
But his triumph over those odds is what leaves no argument that racing lost a very special horse this week.
CUPS KING
* Breeding: Live Or Die - My Excuse.
* Trainer: Robert Mitchell.
* Driver: Todd Mitchell.
* Record: 39 starts - 17 wins, 15 placings.
* Earnings: $1,047,157.
* Highlights: Two New Zealand Cups (2003, 2004); New Zealand Free-For-All; Ballarat Cup, Messenger Pace; Taylor Mile.
