''The Golden Eagle is about money, this is about status. The Cox Plate is the greatest race in Australia, so why wouldn't you go to the greatest race,'' says Rosen, recalling  the way he and the horse's trainer, Adam Trinder, plotted her autumn campaign with the Australian Guineas at Flemington as her key target, not the $5 million All-Star Mile.

''The Guineas was the race we wanted to win. The All-Star Mile just occurred two weeks later and it was a bonus,'' smiles Rosen as he remembers how his star took out the two events in quick succession.

Trinder concurs. Asked if he was ever tempted to suggest a different path, he says: ''Not at all.  I am a person who has grown up in racing. My grandfather won the Melbourne Cup in 1972. The Cox Plate is the holy grail for my mind. It's one of the big three here (along with the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups), so we would love the opportunity to be able to line up in one of the prestigious races of Australian racing.''

Rosen also smiles when asked if he was tempted to replace Anthony Darmanin, Mystic Journey's low-profile rider, with a more famous name.

Already this spring former Victorian premier rider Luke Nolen, Black Caviar's regular jockey, has lost the ride on Melbourne Cup favourite Constantinople to Glen Boss, while former Tasmanian jockey Raquel Clark, now based in Adelaide, was taken off Caulfield Guineas favourite Dalasan in favour of Winx's former pilot, Hugh Bowman. In that race the pair finished fourth, with Clark watching from the grandstand.

''If people are loyal to us, we are loyal to them. It's one of the lines on how it all occurs,'' says Rosen.

''These people who do all the hard yards, when the big races come along they get taken off, and I know Miss Clark quite well because she comes form Tasmania. I thought it was sad she was taken off.''

Trinder echoes Rosen here, too - a sign of a trainer and principal owner (he bought 11 yearlings to put into training with Trinder earlier this year) working in unison.

''He's got a fantastic record on this mare, and for our stable,'' he says of Darmanin. '' He is my stable rider, he won the group 1 on her, won a $5 million race on her over 1600 metres. His record is outstanding.

''The Turnbull Stakes didn't work out for other reasons (when she ran fifth) but from a positive draw he will give her every chance.''

Trinder says the forecast poor weather conditions are not ideal, but softish ground will not bother his mare, although he would be concerned if the heavens opened.

''She would be all right up to a soft six. Anything worse than that, which I don't think we would get, she would potentially struggle.

''Barrier six just gives her the opportunity to roll forward, maintain and hold her position without doing too much work down to the winning post. I would envisage she would settle third, fourth or fifth and give herself every opportunity to build.

''I really am hoping to see that turn of foot over 2000 metres.  We saw it over the 1600 metres.
At Moonee Valley I think she absorbs the pressure of the track and the atmosphere I think you will see a very similar thing (to her Australian Guineas closing speed).''

Trinder is most wary of the Japanese favourite Lys Gracieux. He rode over jumps in Japan earlier in his career and he knows how good Japanese horses can be.

''Their good horses are really good, their really good horses are exceptional,'' he says.