Tony Prinitis only ever wanted to own half of Sausedge. The other half he wanted to share with his mate Robert Heyblok.
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But, having bred the filly, Heyblok wanted to keep this one to himself, with his three daughters coming up with the name.
But a heart attack changed all that and Prinitis stepped in to help the grieving family with Heyblok's affairs.
He sent his horses to the sales and bought Sausedge himself - adopting the name his mate's daughters had come up with.
That's why he looked to the sky when the now three-year-old filly won her way into the listed Canberra Guineas (1400 metres).
It capped an emotional time for Prinitis, who was excited about being part of Black Opal Stakes Day at Canberra's Thoroughbred Park on Saturday.
"Me and my old mate, we used to breed race horses together," he said.
"I said to him, 'How about I go halves with you?' He goes, 'Nah, nah, nah, I'm going to race her myself'.
"A few weeks later he said he was speaking to his daughters and they wanted to name it Sausedge.
"Low and behold a month after that he died. No prior symptoms, just had a heart attack aged 54 and left behind three girls aged 15, 15 and 12.
"When she won at the preview two weeks ago I looked up at the heavens and said, 'Robert I know she's making you proud'."
Pedigrees have always intrigued Prinitis - it's what got him into the racing game.
He'd breed horses and what he couldn't sell he'd keep for himself - his breeding habit enough to sustain his racing habit.
"I just like pedigrees and any horse that's racing around I could pretty much tell you, 'This is it's father, this is it's mother'," Prinitis said.
"It's just something that fascinates me. I've always liked it."
The Matthew Dale-trained Sausedge was a $15 chance for the Guineas, behind $3.60-favourite Yulong January.
Final Award ($4), Coterie ($4.80) and Laburnum ($8.50) were the only other chances paying less than $10.
Prinitis saw James Cummings' Laburnum as the main danger, but he's confident he has a "serious racehorse" on his hands.
Just how good Sausedge is? He's not sure.
"It is a step up with the bigger horses [from Sydney], but we do think she's got a chance to be a black-type filly as a miler," Prinitis said.
"It'll be great if she gets first, but even a place or a fourth or something. We just don't know how good she is because she hasn't been tested."
Canberra jockey Kayla Nisbet has the ride for the Guineas.
She's ridden Sausedge for three of her four starts - all of which were wins. The only time she wasn't on board, the daughter of Shamus Award finished third.
It made it an easy choice of who should get the ride on Sunday.
"That's why we stuck with her, because she's had three starts for three wins," Prinitis said.
"How can we not give her the ride? The girl rides her at trackwork and she's ridden her at her jumpouts.
"She knows the filly better than anybody else and she's got a good affinity."
BLACK OPAL STAKES DAY
Sunday: Gates open 11.30am with the first race at 1pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.
