Mark Taylor got it right. So too did Pat Rafter, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne - provided he doesn't change his mind. They all chose the right time to retire.
It's now trainer Joe Janiak's turn to make the right decision with his rags-to-riches racehorse Takeover Target.
The champion sprinter, who has had his passport stamped more often than many Australians, pulled up lame after the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Ascot during the weekend.
Subsequent scans have found a tear in a suspensory ligament. The injury is not serious but enough for Janiak to pack his top hat and tails and head home.
He won't decide on the rising nine-year-old's racing future until the gelding receives treatment back home.
Even if the galloper responds positively, let's hope Janiak pulls up stumps on Takeover Target's racing career.
As much as this racing fan would love to see Janiak take on the world once more with his sprinter it would be too much to bear if Takeover Target was to suffer a serious injury or worse still had his life ended on the racetrack.
Bought for just $1400 by the former cabbie from Queanbeyan, Takeover Target has won 17 races - three on international soil and six at Group One level - and amassed more than $5 million in prizemoney.
Along the way he has captured the hearts of more than just racing fans.
In many ways he has become an Australian icon, as recognisable in Queanbeyan with the country folk as he is with the aristocrats at Royal Ascot where he first rose to international prominence in 2006.
Janiak desperately wants to win the Golden Jubilee with Takeover Target, who has run third, second and most recently fourth at his three tries in the race.
But that race is destined to be to Janiak what India was to Steve Waugh - the final frontier.
The public would never forgive him if he went to the well once too often with Takeover Target and was forced to head home with an empty float. Fairytales deserve better endings than that.