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Matt Cameron is not one to get carried away with horses - even top horses.
But he was almost stuck for words after rising star Volkstok'n'barrell won at Ellerslie on Saturday.
"How did he win that race - how did he win?" he asked with amazement in his voice in the weighing room.
Co-trainer Donna Logan was asking the same question.
"Not for one moment did I think he could win that race," said Logan with similar amazement.
"I was certain that at 1300m he was vulnerable.
"He wasn't properly fit and with so much speed in the race and the fact he'd drawn out I told everyone he wouldn't win."
The race was a sprint home, which suited the main danger, emerging type Huka Eagle. Volkstok'n'barrell peeled out from last in the small field at the top of the straight, but with the leaders, including Huka Eagle, sprinting hard it was not easy to gather them in.
Four strides out it looked impossible for Volkstok'n'barrell to win, but extraordinary horses do extraordinary things and they rarely get beaten in tight finishes.
In the last bound the favourite refused to be beaten and lunged past Huka Eagle.
The punter who not long before the race plonked $10,000 on Volkstok'n'barrell in the Derby on February 28 at $7, must have been smiling.
It was a hard race for a horse going to the races for just the fourth time, but Donna Logan declared the gelding "happy" in his paddock yesterday.
Victoria's Rosemont Stud bought a 20 per cent share in Volkstok'n'barrell early last week.
"Obviously, as a gelding there is no breeding opportunity at the end of it, but the stud wanted to have their colours seen on a top-class horse.
"If this horse gets to Sydney in the autumn they figure it will be good publicity for their breeding operation."
The best publicity would have been Matt Cameron's demeanour in the weighing room.
"Wow ... Wow," he said as he walked away.
That's a pretty big statement from Cameron.
