"HE ABSOLUTELY HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART."

By Graham Potter | Saturday, March 2, 2024

It is not often you see Nash Rawiller that excited ... that lost for words ... that emotional, but that’s what a win on a horse that means so much to you can do for any rider, particularly if it is a Group 1 victory.

Think It Over’s win in Saturday’s $1 million, Group 1 Verry Elleegant Stakes at Randwick was Rawiller’s sixty-ninth Group 1 success, but he was still absolutely lost for words after dismounting from the Kerry Parker trained eight-year-old.

“To know where this horse has been and what the team has had to go through to get him back in this type of form is pretty emotional,” said Rawiller.

“He absolutely holds a special place in my heart.”

It somehow seems long ago now when Rawiller brought Think It Over across to the extreme outside rail in the 2022, Group 1 Queen Elixabeth Stakes and proceeded to run down the free-running Zaaki who was chasing hard down the centre of the track in what became a famous, if controversial victory.

Controversial because Rawiller was handed a two-week suspension and a huge $40 000 fine for excessive use of the whip in the race.

Yet, here we are, almost two years later and Think It Over and Rawiller are back as Group 1 winners after a tendon injury to his offside foreleg derailed Think It Over’s career for a full sixteen months between that Queen Elizabeth Stakes win and his return to action in August 2023.

In fact, at one stage there was a danger that Think It Over might not make it back to the track.

Amazing stuff ... so you can understand the emotion involved.

In that Queen Elizabeth Stakes win, Think It Over started at a price of $41 and, apart from Zaaki ($5), he also upstaged the likes of Verry Elleegant ($3.80) and Anamoe ($4) ... and on Saturday he was at it again, upstaging the hot race favourite Fangirl while emphasising the fact that he was as tough and resilient as ever as he powered to the line after Rawiller had played a very different hand this time, saving ground and cutting the corner.

While Rawiller was emotional, trainer Kerry Parker seemed pretty laid back and in a ‘business as usual’ mode.

“He’s a thrill isn’t he. He just loves racing. You wouldn’t think he is an eight-year-old. He doesn’t think he is an eight-year-old,” said Parker in a post-race interview.

“He’s always bouncing around the track. He kept us on our toes down in the stalls today. He’s had his game-face on all week.”

“No doubt at all we want to try and win another Queen Elizabeth. That was always his aim this time in. He’ll go to the Ranvet now and then into the Queen Elizabeth.”

Think It Over has won fourteen of 41 starts and has been placed on thirteen occasions with $8 454 070 banked in prize-money.

A win in the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Stakes will elevate that prize-money total through the $10 million mark!

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