Rachael Cunningham knows the feeling of being a Grand National Steeplechase winning trainer which she is hoping to replicate at Ballarat on Sunday.
Bee Tee Junior gave the Pakenham-based trainer National success in 2020 during COVID with no-one on course.
Not one for nostalgia, Cunningham has a picture of Bee Tee Junior in her home, but it is blighted with having to wear a mask.
She hopes to replace that photo with one of either The Good Fight or Carnamah after the 4500m contest on Sunday.
Cunningham almost tears up when she speaks of The Good Fight, a horse she had her eye on from his days in New Zealand with Shaun Ritchie.
After a stint with Mike Moroney at Flemington, The Good Fight was sold online where he was picked up by Reece Goodwin who outbid Cunningham in a digital online sale.
After nine starts for Goodwin, who still maintains a share in the ownership, Cunningham was able to get the now 10-year-old into her stable.
Success in a maiden hurdle at Warrnambool in June was followed by successive placings at Warrnambool, Pakenham and Sandown, the most recent in the Grand National Hurdle.
“The National Hurdle was always the aim for him because of the trip,” Cunninham said.
“But in the background, and on the quiet, we had been schooling him over the chase fences, just so that if we got to that point in the season, it was an option.
“I probably wouldn’t go to a National Chase in their first season, but I think he’s done better since his run in the National Hurdle.
“In himself, he looks stronger, his coat has improved, so we’re going.
“I am a horse lover first and foremost, but I have trouble talking about this horse.
“I’d tried to get him for years and I look at him some mornings and he makes me tear up, because when they get to his age, and they still give you 110 per cent, it’s remarkable.
“He’s got little niggling things, and he still wants to be here, doing it, that’s enormous.”
Cunningham took The Good Fight to Hamilton to get his ticket to race over fences on August 12 and said Darryl Horner, who rides him on Sunday, was swinging off him the entire way.
“I was so pleased,” Cunningham said.
“So, we’re going there and hopefully it won’t be too wet.”
Cunningham said Carnamah wants a ‘bottomless heavy track’ while Not Usual Dream, who was also a Grand National Steeplechase entrant, will run in the Henry Dwyer Racing Steeplechase (3600m) and Texas Hold’em will compete in the J J Houlahan Hurdle (3250m).
“It’s the last meeting of the jumps season and we have four horses that I think are better now than they were at the start of the season,” Cunningham said.