The Canberra racing community is still coming to grips with the death of jockey Johnson, which occurred in a single-vehicle crash that left her partner and Thoroughbred Park trainer Garry Kirkup seriously injured last Sunday.

But if only for five minutes, their families found "a little bit of joy".

The Kirkup-trained Highly Geared managed "horse racing's greatest ever seventh" in the Mark Hughes Foundation Handicap at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Fellow Canberra trainer Doug Gorrell shares stables with Kirkup and watched the emotional race alongside the injured trainer and his family in hospital.

Winning the race was never important - the fact the eight-year-old mare was even there was remarkable.

The Canberra racing community rallied to prepare Highly Geared for an emotion-charged run in Sydney as a tribute to Johnson and Kirkup.

Kirkup was brought out of an induced coma on Tuesday night and watched the race from Canberra Hospital, where he is battling organ complications but remains in a stable condition.

"The poor bugger, he's a very tough man. He comes off horses and gets back on them and goes again. If he's in pain then you know it's bloody serious pain," Gorrell said.

"At least he got to watch his mare, and at least she went around for Samara and tried her heart out. His family and Samara's family, they've all been able to have a little bit of joy for five minutes watching the race.

"Without winning, it's the next best result. A good safe race, rider and horse got home safely and both tried their best, so all good on that front.

"A long way down the road we can look back on it and just appreciate we got the horse there for Samara and she tried her guts out. It's all good, can't win them all.

"It was just all about the Johnson family and the Kirkup family honouring Samara and Kirky, that's all that mattered.

"The result, it wouldn't have mattered if she'd run 30 lengths last and she certainly didn't do that, so she's done Samara proud, she has."

Jockey Rachel Hunt rode with a heavy heart as she paid tribute to Johnson with a purple cap and silks with the fallen jockey's named stitched into the leg

Hunt lived next to Kirkup and Johnson when she was completing her jockey apprenticeship in Canberra, and moved to Sydney six months ago following the death of her best friend and Canberra track work rider Riharna Thomson.

Kirkup's son Ben is the majority owner of Highly Geared, the unlikely mare that has won $311,420 since she was bought as an untrained four-year-old for just $12,000 in 2013.

Ben Kirkup says they were touch and go as to whether or not they'd run but "when the accident happened we decided we should just run, we've got nothing to lose".

"Samara's parents and two brothers came up, the ATC were fantastic. They did a lovely tribute to Samara. It was a very emotional day," Kirkup said.

"Rachel Hunt, the jockey, we just told her to treat it like any other race. She used to live next door to Samara and she was a little bit emotional before the race, as all of us were.

"Dougy and Matty Dale, the whole race track has been fantastic with all their support and managing the horses.

"I just can't thank them enough for everything, they haven't been hesitating to put their hand up. We wouldn't have been able to run without them."

Black Opal-winning jockey Tim Clark rode the Bjorn Baker-trained Test The World to victory in the race, with Bon Amis and To Excess finishing second and third respectively.